Est 1923

M-A. Charpentier Office de Ténèbres

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Label: Opus 111

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 63

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: OPS55-9119

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Tenebrae Lesson (JOD. Manum suam) Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
Tenebrae Lesson (Incipit oratio Jeremaie) Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
Autre leçon de ténèbres, 'Ego vir videns' Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
(9) Tenebrae Responsories, Movement: Eram quasi agnus Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
(9) Tenebrae Responsories, Movement: O Juda Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
(9) Tenebrae Responsories, Movement: O vos omnes Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
Miserere Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
(Le) Parlement de Musique
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Composer
Martin Gester, Harpsichord
I enjoyed an earlier disc of Charpentier's music (Opus 111, 9/91) performed by Le Parlement de Musique; but, as is the way with early music groups, between then and now the personnel has partly changed. The soprano Francoise Semellaz has been replaced by Veronique Gens and the two recorder players of the earlier disc have been dropped in favour of two others. Happily for me, the other soprano, Noemi Rime, has survived the latest round of departures and is here on characteristically appealing form.
The new issue contains an assortment of Lecons de tenebres, repons and a setting of the Miserere (Psalm 50). Only three pieces are entirely new to the lists of commercially recorded music, the Troisieme Lecon de tenebres du Jeudi saint (H93), the Troisieme Lecon de tenebres du Vendredi saint (H95) and the Miserere (H157). Few readers, however will still be in possession of a very old LP (Pleiade P3083) which contains the only other version I can recall of the Second repons (H134). There it was sung by the tenor Jean Giraudeau with the Ensemble Marius Casadesus and Marcel Dupre (organ). My copy is badly off-centre so I am glad for this and other reasons to welcome the new version.
Charpentier composed Tenebrae for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Holy Week, though they were sung in each instance on the previous evening. Their texts from the ''Lamentations of Jeremiah'' are interspersed, at least by French baroque composers with affective, ornamental, melismatic phrases inspired by ritualistic Hebrew letters. Charpentier's older contemporary, Michel Lambert, was one of the first composers to give a distinctive French character to Tenebrae settings. Lambert was skilful in blending features of the Italian monodic lamentazioni with those of the French court air. It was a recipe which found favour and, in the hands of Charpentier and Couperin after him, reached quite exceptional heights of expressive intensity. This is not lost on the sensitive artists who comprise Le Parlement de Musique. The declamatory freedom of the form afforded Charpentier opportunities for almost unprecedented excursions into sustained chromaticism (H95), startlingly bold harmonies and searing dissonances. Many of the passages are endowed with such pathos that they are, to me almost unendurable; but this is merely proof of the potent skill with which Charpentier interprets the texts. It is a skill which, furthermore, extends beyond the voices to the instrumental writing. This can be heard in the very first measures of the tender Incipit oratio Jeremiae (H95) which serves as an introduction to the programme. The affecting way in which Charpentier organizes the solo voice entry is a masterstroke foreshadowing that in which Bach, 50 or so years later, introduces the tenor voice in the aria ''Wohl dir, du Volk der Linden'' (BWV119). This is vintage Charpentier and it is all the more effective in performances of this calibre.
Almost throughout, the music engages both heart and mind at a profound level. The director, Martin Gester, has given careful thought to the construction of the programme creating what in his own words he describes as an amalgam of music for the Holy Week services. As I implied earlier the sopranos Veronique Gens and Noemi Rime are first-rate; they blend well together and sustain both a poignant intensity in Charpentier's deeply affecting two-part vocal textures, and an ecstatic radiance in those frequent passages where the composer allows them wide-ranging freedom. In short this is food for the contemplative soul which is equally intended to ravish the senses. Full texts with translations are included. Strongly recommended.NA

M-A. Charpentier Office de Ténèbres

Tenebrae Lesson (JOD. Manum suam)

Tenebrae Lesson (Incipit oratio Jeremaie)

Autre leçon de ténèbres, 'Ego vir videns'

(9) Tenebrae Responsories, Movement: Eram quasi agnus

(9) Tenebrae Responsories, Movement: O Juda

(9) Tenebrae Responsories, Movement: O vos omnes

Miserere

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