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Saint Louis: Chroniques et musiques du XIIIe siècle

Ensemble vocal de Notre-Dame de Paris, Sylvain Dieudonné
72:35
Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris 006

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD resulted from a 2014 concert programme marking in the music of his time the 800th anniversary of King Saint Louis’s birth and following the course of his life and involves the vocal ensemble of Notre-Dame de Paris, the Maitrise Notre-Dame de Paris (adult choir) and an instrumental ensemble as well as a narrator, reading in medieval French from contemporary accounts of the King-Saint’s life. The musical performances are beautifully executed with the solo voices of the vocal ensemble blending well with the instruments and the adult choir providing spirited performances of chanted liturgical items. The confidence and authority of the singing, surely the result of this programme having received several concert performances before it was recorded, are impressive and it is also exciting to find the pioneering work of groups such as the Ensemble Organum incorporated effortlessly into the florified chant. This CD is a feast of 13th-century sacred and secular material vividly performed in the rich acoustic of the Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bon Secours in Paris.

D. James Ross