A Portrait of Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704) was one of the greatest seventeenth-century composers, to be ranked with Monteverdi, Schütz and Purcell. After studying in Italy, he became a singer and composer for the elite group of musicians in the household of the Duchesse de Guise, Louis XIV's first cousin; following her death in 1688, he became music master to the Jesuits in Paris and then in the Sainte-Chapelle at court.

In this special concert a cross-section of his most memorable music, sacred and secular, is brought together. It ranges from a wonderful extended motet, 'Annunciate superi', for six-part choir, two treble viols and continuo, written for the Guise musicians, to the famous setting of the Te Deum, probably written in August 1692 to celebrate the French victory at Steenkerque and famous today for the use of its Prelude as the Eurovision theme tune. Charpentier's secular music is represented mainly by a superb scene, set in the underworld, from his unfinished opera La Descente d'Orphée aux enfers (1686–7).

Programme:
Charpentier Annuntiate superi, H. 333
Ruisseau, qui nourris dans ce bois, H. 466
La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, H. 488
Tristes et anima mea, H. 126, from Leçons de ténèbres
Salve Regina, H. 47
Ouverture pour le sacre d'un Evesque, H. 536
Domine salvum fac regem, H. 299
Te Deum in D major, H. 146

Performers:
Charles Daniels tenor
Stuart O'Hara bass
Psalmody
The John Jenkins Consort
Essex Baroque Orchestra
Peter Holman director