Credits:

Pygmalion

Description:

This program offers vivid interpretations of masterpieces by vocal composers that thrilled Paris in the 18th century, as only a production from Versailles could. While opera was at the center of the music world, people in 18th century Paris also continued to applaud church music with orchestra. From the reign of Louis XIV onward, composers who frequented the royal chapels wrote numerous choral works (grand motets) with large ensembles, which were performed in Paris by the musicians of the opera house during the Christian Temperance period when the theaters were closed, and the Concert Spirits, a subscription concert series whose main program was based on these works, continued to be performed in the city. The Concerts Spirituales, which were the main performance of this periodical series, remained highly popular until the outbreak of the French Revolution. The concert series was originally performed with motets by Louis XIV's favorite composers such as Lully and de Lalande, but it was Mondonville, a Frenchman of the same generation as C.P.E. Bach and Gluck, whose 250th anniversary will be in 2022, who won much praise for his new Grand Motets. He was also active as a composer of operas, and attracted so much attention that he was ranked alongside Rameau, a great composer whose unique style caused controversy. The ensemble led by Gaëtan Jari, who has successfully conducted many large-scale Baroque projects at the Château de Versailles, will interpret three of Mondonville's grand motets masterpieces with a richness that matches their true value, skillfully taking advantage of the rich reverberations of the royal chapel that was used even during Mondonville's lifetime. The three masterpieces of his Grand Motets are interpreted with a richness that matches their true value.From one of the masterpieces, "The Lord is beautifully dressed and does not rule", which Madame de Pompadour praised as "the most beautiful music I have ever heard", to "Israel out of Egypt" from 1753, with its impressive and powerful minor key sound, the selections were exquisitely chosen with an awareness of the gap in time. The selection of songs is also exquisite, with an awareness of the gap in time periods. The solo singers and chorus are all very reliable, and the swelling and accents of the bass with two double basses and four bassoons are also very pleasant, allowing the audience to fully enjoy Mondonville's brilliant melodic beauty and crisp sound production that even foreshadows Romanticism. Naxos Japan