Ensemble Mare Nostrum / Andrea De Carlo LE CONCERT DES VIOLES

Whilst Italian composers had taken up the ‘modern' form of the sonata and adapted it to the violin at the beginning of the 17th century, French composers remained faithful to the principles of polyphonic music with their fantaisies that were still intended for ensembles of viols; the role of the violin in France at that time was still limited to providing music for dancing. Such knowledge of polyphony was demanded not only from composers of vocal music but also from organists, one of whom was Louis Couperin and who was also dessus de viole de la chambre du Roi. Our recording comes to a fitting conclusion with the last French work to be written for ensemble of viols: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Concert à quatre parties de violes.

Ensemble Correspondances / Sébastien Daucé HENRY DU MONT O Mysterium - Motets & Élévations pour la Chapelle de Louis XIV

For twenty years (from 1663 to 1683) Henry Du Mont directed the music of the Sun King’s chapel. For the daily Mass heard there he built up a new musical repertory consisting of motets for full chorus and more intimate pieces for solo voices. The former aimed to transpose to the context of the ‘ordinary’ the format of the large-scale works conceived for extraordinary ceremonies. Sébastien Daucé presents an innovative approach to these ‘grands motets’ that at once links specific musical features with historical data and reveals all their beauties in every detail. (Harmonia Mundi)