Concerts de musique baroque française

Honor to French baroque composers

Marc-Antoine CHARPENTIER (1643-1704) Te Deum H 146 and Midnight Mass for Christmas

André CAMPRA (1660-1746) Exaudiat te Dominus

Jean Joseph Cassanéa de MONDONVILLE (1711-1772) Dominus Regnavit

From the middle of the 17th to the end of the 18th century, French baroque music rivaled that of Antonio Vivaldi's Italy, Johann Sebastian Bach's Germany, or Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel's England.

From the reign of Louis XIV to that of Louis XV, talented composers and musicians were sought after to satisfy the Church and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and even more so to celebrate the power of the monarchy and the nobility.

Thus, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau made French-style opera triumph, and François Couperin's harpsichord art remains a benchmark across Europe to this day.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, although remaining in the shadows during the reign of the Sun King, excelled in sacred music and imported the art of the oratorio from Italy.

André Campra, in full spotlight under the Regency, divided his talent between lyrical compositions and sacred music, particularly, like M.A. Charpentier, among the Jesuits of the Collège Louis-le-Grand.

The Concert Spirituel, which he directed, offered Jean Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, a protégé of Madame de Pompadour, a prestigious venue to perform his most flamboyant oratorios.