COMPOSERS: M-A Charpentier
LABELS: Naxos
WORKS: Vespres à la Vierge
PERFORMER: Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet
CATALOGUE NO: 8.553174 DDD
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (d1704) was keen on religion. This lively but slightly raw recording collects together his finest pieces for the late afternoon service of Vespers. Beatus vir comes as a shock with its manic declamation of ‘he shall gnash with his teeth’, but Laudate pueri exults and soothes. Salve regina is the musical highpoint, with a simply breathtaking purple passage of harmony at ‘Ad te suspiramus’. The version here, in its control but not its pliancy, surpasses the earlier one by Michel Corboz (Erato). Anthony Pryer
M-A Charpentier: Vespres à la Vierge
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (d1704) was keen on religion. This lively but slightly raw recording collects together his finest pieces for the late afternoon service of Vespers. Beatus vir comes as a shock with its manic declamation of ‘he shall gnash with his teeth’, but Laudate pueri exults and soothes. Salve regina is the musical highpoint, with a simply breathtaking purple passage of harmony at ‘Ad te suspiramus’. The version here, in its control but not its pliancy, surpasses the earlier one by Michel Corboz (Erato). Anthony Pryer
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:07 pm