Marc-Antoine Charpentier had no formal links with the court of Louis XIV, where Lully’s music held sway. But he did have limited contact with the court, mainly through relatives of the king. This disc includes two panegyric works, honouring the king in thinly veiled metaphor, and two celebratory ones – apparently composed to mark French military victories in the early and mid 1690s.
The opening track of the Te Deum (notably the trumpet and drum fanfare) will be instantly recognisable as the Eurovision signature tune, but once past that the present-day association gives way to the sense of historical occasion. In addition to trumpets and drums (which return in three further movements), Charpentier used other colourful instruments, in particular solo recorders, twice with solo soprano (note especially the ‘Te ergo quaesumus’), and in succeeding movements solo violin. He used recorders again in combination with solo voices in the two works in praise of St Louis – in the haute-contre’s ‘Certamen forte dedisti Domine’ in H365 and the trio of men’s voices in the ‘Accedite et admiramini’ of H418 as well as in the chamber-ensemble texture of the piquantly dissonant opening Prelude.
<Indeed, some of the most striking moments in these works are reserved for the ensembles of vocal soloists: the ‘Te per orbem terrarum sancta’ for the three male soloists and the ‘Fiat misericordia’ for the two sopranos and bass in the Te Deum; the unusual presence of the petit choeur – contrasting with the ritornellos of the oboes and strings – in the ‘Prelude Guay’ and the male trio in the ‘Dies tubae et clangoris’ of H365 and – to great effect against the male voices of the grand choeur – in the rhetorical ‘Tu terribilis es’ of the Psalm, H206. All five soloists shine in turn – Haller, Chevigne and Marzorati in both the Te Deum and H365, Geslot and van Dyck in H418. In H206, Haller and van Dyck take turns sustaining the long lines over the walking bass in the ‘Dormierunt somnum suum’.
<Le Parlement de Musique, whose members play on period instruments, are joined in the choral movements by the well-drilled Maitrise de Bretagne, who deliver their texts clearly and with spirit. An altogether enjoyable recording.'