Choeur et Orchestra Marguerite Louise, directed by Gaétan Jarry (organ)
77:53
Versailles Spectacles CVS173
Few Christmas works have worked their way into the affections of music lovers to a greater degree than Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit. One of many sacred works composed by Charpentier while in the service of the Jesuits (1689-1698), the exact date of its composition is unknown; the composer’s biographer Catherine Cessac has suggested Christmas 1693 or 4 as likely possibility. Scored in four parts – soprano, alto, tenor and bass plus a string orchestra and organ, it resembles the idea of the ‘parody’ mass familiar in Renaissance sacred music but well out of fashion by Charpentier’s time. But unlike the ‘parody’ form it uses not one theme, but no fewer than eleven drawn from old French carols, employed by Charpentier with great skill and the addition of nothing more than a modest degree of ornamentation that allows them to retain their naive charm. ‘Joseph est bien marié’, for example, to which the opening ‘Kyrie’ is set, has a delightfully catchy tune that instantly draws the listener into the joyous spirit of Christmastide. It is also aggravatingly insidious and I hope other listeners have better luck getting it out of their head than I did! It was a good idea to include a number of the orchestral arrangements of these carols that Charpentier made several years prior to the Mass and which were collected in two groups, catalogued as H. 531 and H.534 respectively. The new recording was made in the wonderful acoustic of the Chapelle Royal at the palace of Versailles and is as idiomatic and as outstandingly performed as one would expect from Gaétan Jarry and his accomplished performers, among them a quartet of first-rate soloists (Caroline Arnaud soprano, Romain Champion haute-contre, Mathias Vidal tenor and David Witczak bass).
This would be an outstanding CD even without another major work being included, but Dialogus inter angelos et pastores Judae. In Nativitatem Domini, H. 420 is arguably a more important work than the Mass. ‘Dialogus’ here refers more to a type of work than any extended exchanges between the participants, being one of seven so-called dialogues composed by Charpentier. Taking its text principally from St Luke’s Gospel, the work falls naturally into two sections, each preceded by an orchestral introduction. The first lays the foundation for the opening tenor solo appealing to God: ‘How long will you turn your face to us’, the exquisite second an evocation of night with muted strings and delicate flute. That is followed by the shepherd’s wonder at the opening of the heavens – a translucently beautiful chorus – and the Angel’s announcement to the shepherds, a passage sung with radiantly pure tone by Caroline Arnaud.
Dixit Dominus, H. 202, composed around 1690, is one of six settings Charpentier made of the psalm, this one notable for a prelude of a breadth that surprises in the context of the relative brevity of the work. The writing, employing as usual alternating choruses and solos, is particularly notable for the florid, Italianate writing at passages such as ‘De torrente’. Finally on this generously filled CD there is the lovely Noel, ‘O Créateur’, H. 531 originally one of the orchestral arrangements made by Charpentier, but not employed in the Mass and here heard with its original text, the strophic verses sensitively ornamented.
The whole disc is a joy from start to finish; it is strongly recommended to anyone yet to encounter the delectable Messe de Minuit and is open to discovering some refreshingly different Christmas music.
Brian Robins