Sebastien de Brossard, a contemporary of Francois Couperin, as well as being a collector and lexicographer – his highly successful Dictionnaire de musique was published in 1703 – was an able composer. Just recently, his music has come to the attention of record companies, this issue being the fourth disc devoted solely to it (the others were reviewed in 9/93 and A/97). The programme consists of two motets, one of them a Stabat mater, and a Christmas Mass sung by Les Pages et les Chantres de la Chapelle under the direction of Olivier Schneebeli.
Unlike so many of his successful French contemporaries, Brossard was Paris-based only for a short while, early in his career. For ten years or so he was maitre de chapelle at Strasbourg Cathedral, moving on in 1698 to a similar position at the Cathedral of Meaux from which he resigned in 1715. Although Brossard himself seems to have viewed his own compositional talents with modesty, his music, like his deep learning in matters of theory, was admired by those with discerning taste.
All the music on this disc was written for performance in Meaux, and the Stabat mater seems to have enjoyed particular favour. As Jean Duran remarks in the booklet-note, Brossard set his texts with great care, and with the intention of touching the emotions of his audience. There is little here which might be described as in a popular or even, at times, easily accessible idiom; yet the conjunction of text and music is on occasion highly charged and frequently lyrical. But Brossard’s style is, comparatively speaking, recherche and readers who are not fluently conversant with French baroque musical idiom or ardently Francophile may well find this programme hard-going. Matters are not helped by the somewhat monochrome and lustreless character of the performances. There are certainly some beautiful moments here, but far too much of the time the singing is unrefined and lacking in tonal focus. The Christmas Mass comes to life intermittently but the enduring impression is of an opportunity only partly realized.
In the context of a service, especially in the cathedral for which the music was written, these performances might be endearing; but on a disc, they simply do not pass muster. There are passages of wholly inadequate singing in the Kyrie of the Mass and only the most uncritical of ears would wish to hear it more than once. But do not give up on Brossard. His music is often profoundly expressive, as you will find on a companion disc from Astree of grands motets (A/97).
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