CHARPENTIER: À la Chapelle Royale de Versailles - FIGUERAS, KIEHR, SAVALL (3 HYBRID SACD)

LA CAPELLA REIAL DE CATALUNYA
LE CONCERT DES NATIONS
JORDI SAVALL
It was 1988, and at that time the vast majority of Charpentier’s works were still accessible only via the original sources, so we had to rely on microfilms of the composer’s complete works collected in the twenty-eight manuscript volumes known as “Meslanges”. Poring over the manuscript pages on the screen of our microfilm reader, I studied and selected the works for the programme on the basis of the original texts. I was immediately amazed by the beauty, modernity, expression and richness of Charpentier’s music, and Montserrat and I turned our minds to putting together the best possible team of singers and musicians to start work on this new and fascinating repertory. It was in the last warm days of spring that we started to rehearse the programme of Charpentier’s Canticum ad Beatam Virginem Mariam at our country house in Begues, a small village 700 metres above sea level, overlooking the coastal town of Sitges in Catalonia.