Italy v France

Donald Macleod explores Marc-Antoine Charpentier's formative years, with the dramatic motet Le Reniement de Saint Pierre and a discourse on pleasure, "Les Plaisirs de Versailles"

It's just a case of bad timing for Marc-Antoine Charpentier that he happened to be born a decade or so after Jean-Baptiste Lully. The manipulative king's favourite held a monopoly at the Sun King's court and in the theatres. Even after his death in 1687, Charpentier had to contend with back-biting from Lully's vociferous supporters. Happily Charpentier also possessed a big reputation and a band of loyal and well-to-do supporters. In a career spanning 35 years, he enjoyed a succession of plum jobs, writing in every kind of genre for some of the most influential patrons and establishments in Paris. Indeed, perhaps Lully's restrictive practices were inadvertently his making, affording Charpentier the kind of artistic freedom to write exactly what he wanted.

Back home after three years in Italy, the Italianate influences audible in Charpentier's music stirred up existing tensions over the merits of French and Italian style.
Donald Macleod presents complete performances of the early Italian-influenced dramatic motet Le Reniement de Saint Pierre and the charming entertainment Les Plaisirs de Versailles, in which Conversation and Music argue as to which of them is indispensable.

Te Deum, H.146 (excerpt)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, director

Intermèdes: Le Mariage forcé
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, director

Le Reniement de Saint Pierre,H 424
Natalie Clifton-Griffith (soprano), Ostiaria
Grace Davidson, soprano Ancilla
Andrew Tortise (tenor) Petrus
Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Jesus
James Mustard, Eamonn Dougan (bass), Historicus
Nicholas Mulroy, (tenor), Cognatus Malchi
David Miller, Lynda Sayce, theorbo
Richard Campbell, bass viol
Silas Standage, organ
Members of Ex Cathedra Choir and Baroque Ensemble
Jeffrey Skidmore, director

Les Plaisirs de Versailles H 480
Sophie Daneman (soprano), La Musique
Katalin Kàrolyi (mezzo soprano), La Conversation
Steve Dugardin (countertenor), Le Jeu
Jean-François Gardeil (baritone), Comus
François Piolino (tenor), Un Plaisir
Patricia Petibon, soprano
Monique Zanetti, soprano
Fernand Benadi, baritone
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, director.