Ensemble Correspondances / Sébastien Daucé MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) dedicated himself principally to composing sacred music for a pious duchess and a Jesuit chapel. Those works often smolder with inner embers, making him the musical equivalent of the French Caravaggist painter Georges de la Tour. His only full-scale opera was a flop (“too learned,” said the critics), but he also composed several short operas for the duchess’s entertainments. The most intriguing, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers (The Descent of Orpheus into Hell), has been recorded several times before, but never as convincingly as in this luminous performance by Ensemble Correspondances (directed from the organ by Sébastien Daucé), in which historical scholarship deepens engaged musical instincts.

Top-drawer early-music chamber singers lead the cast, including the American light tenor Robert Getchell, affecting as grief-stricken Orphée, and the French bass Nicolas Brooymans, as malleable Pluton. The choral and instrumental work is exemplary, everywhere subtle in phrasing and fluid in embellishment; the nymphs and shepherds lamenting Eurydice’s death prove heartrending in the restrained articulation of their dissonances. This emotionally wrenching piece ends enigmatically, with Orpheus recovering Eurydice but just setting out on his journey with her back to the land of the living — a trip we know will be bumpy — while the Shades dance a ghostly goodbye. (James M. Keller)

Accentus / Enesemble Orchestral de Paris MENDELSSOHN Christus / Cantates Chorales

Conductor Laurence Equilbey continues to broaden the range of repertoire in which the choir Accentus excels. This album presents a sampling of some of Mendelssohn's (relatively) small-scale sacred choral works. Each of them demonstrates the sweet euphony characteristic of so much of the composer's writing. The single-movement cantata Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich, and the chorus from Christus, "Es wird ein Stern aus Jacob aufgehn" are especially lovely examples of the choral serenity Mendelssohn was so skilled at creating. Christus consists of six movements from the unfinished oratorio, with three movements devoted to the Nativity and three to the Passion. In the cantatas based on Lutheran chorales, O Haupt voll blut und wunden and Vom Himmel hoch, it's easy to hear the influence of J.S. Bach in the music's contrapuntal richness and the grandeur summoned in the choral passages. The soloists, soprano Sandrine Piau, tenor Robert Getchell, and basses Markus Butter and Laurent Slaars are all top-notch, singing with exceptionally pure, warm tone, and unmannered delivery. Accentus sings with its accustomed full, sumptuous blend; immaculate intonation; and shapely sensitivity to the music's nuances. Ensemble Orchestral de Paris capably matches the choir's subtlety and musicality. Naïve's album is beautifully engineered, with absolute clarity and spacious ambience. Highly recommended for fans of Romantic choral music. (Stephen Eddins)