This is a digital remastering of part of a two-record album which was released during the early 1970s. This set (not generally available in the UK) contained, in addition to the items here, a six-voice Miserere des Jesuites, H193. The Messe pour les trepasses (Mass for All Soul's Day) is scored for four soloists, four-part double chorus and instruments. In this performance an extended Dies irae is incorporated into the Mass as well as a Motet pour les trepasses, which probably belongs to it. All the music dates from the 1670s shortly after Charpentier's return from Rome.
The music is on a grand scale, spacious in its requirements and profound in spirit. But what a long way we have come in our methods of performance practice since 1972. I'm afraid this inflated style of interpretation will not find many followers nowadays even though the soloists, choir and orchestra make up quite a powerful team. Some of the solo singing, notably that of Jennifer Smith, has withstood the passage of time without tarnish but some of the other contributions are stylistically less satisfying when placed beside those of Les Arts Florissants, for example. Michel Corboz injects plenty of life into the choruses but the instrumental playing, first rate of its kind, would be more in tune with late nineteenth-and ealy twentieth-century grandes messes des morts. The performance is not without impact and it does give an impressionistic view of Charpentier's music; but there is an overall blandness in the approach amounting even, at times, to a feeling that no one really knows in what direction or with what purpose the music is progressing.
Even so, it is good to have this music once more in the catalogue and, who knows how long it will be before another version appears. The digital remastering offers a considerably greater degree of clarity than the original LPs but there are occasional rough patches and a split second or so of distortion here and there. The accompanying booklet contains brief notes but no texts, which is a pity. Specialists will probably want to add this issue to their libraries but anyone unfamiliar with Charpentier's music would be wise to look elsewhere for their initiation.'