Le Concert Spirituel (Conducted by Hervé Niquet) - (France)

LESSONS OF DARKNESS BY MARC ANTOINE CHARPENTIER

Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel

In 1725 the oboist Anne Danican Philidor, descended from a family of musicians attached to the royal service since the 17th century, created the Concert Spirituel, an organisation which offered public concerts for an entrance fee for the first time.

This innovation could be considered the origin of what was to later become, through subsequent philharmonic societies, that veritable institution of social life, the concert.

Hervé Niquet founded the music ensemble Le Concert Spirituel in 1987 in homage to this first initiative, one of the most famous musical institutions of the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.


After studying the harp, the organ and orchestra direction, Hervé Niquet became choir master at the Paris Opera in 1980. Strongly attracted to Baroque music, and especially to the art of the French Grand Motet of the 17th and 18th centuries, as head of the Concert Spirituel he dedicated himself primarily to the repertoire of French Baroque music.

In the French Grand Motot, especially in favour at the King's Court in Versaille, the theatre and the church, the spiritual and the emotional, were closely tied together.

This attraction to musical theatre explains in part Hervé Niquet's inclination to put on plays such as "Hercule" by G.F. Haendel, "Le Roi Arthur" by H. Purcell, "Pygmalion" by J.P. Rameau, or "Le Triomphe d'Isis" by L.N. de Clérambault.

Under his direction, Le Concert Spirituel has become one of the leading ensembles of the international Baroque stage.

The group, associated with the Centre for Baroque Music of Versaille performs regularly at the Royal Chapel and at the Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles. The ensemble has also proved itself these past years by remarkable appearances in the most prestigious Baroque music festivals en France (Ambronay, Printemps des Arts de Monte Carlo) and abroad (Seville, London, Boston).

The orchestra claims a large repertoire: the entirety of the Grands Motets de Lully, the sacred works of Gilles, Campra, Geoffroy, and the lyrical works of Rameau, Purcell, Rossini, and also the Water Music and Firework of G.F. Handel. The group consists of an impressive 100 musicians.

This year being the bicentennial anniversary of the death of Marc Antoine Charpentier, Le Concert Spirituel will interpret Les Leçons de Ténèbres by this great French composer.

The Leçons de Ténèbres are services offered during the matins, before the sun rises, on the holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday during the Easter period. They are comprised of three readings - or lessons - the Lamentations of Jeremiah, grieving the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.


Website : www.concertspirituel.com

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