Ensemble Correspondances: AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIII
About
“Grandeur and gallantry never appeared with more lustre in France, than in the last years of Henry the Second’s reign.” – that is how Madame de la Fayette begins her famous novel The Princess of Cleves (1678). The same sentence could also be used to describe the Louvre in the Louis XIII era (1601–1643), as it retains many of the forms from the not-so-distant times described by the author: times of the house of Valois, who made the creation of artists, spectacles and sumptuous celebrations integral tools of power.
Art, especially music, was henceforth an inalienable part of court ceremonial emphasising the king’s quasi-divine status. The late 16th and early 17th centuries also saw the development of more intimate, salon models of entertainment, which lacked the monarchical grandeur but were remarkably refined. Having permeated the court, they added a delicate emotionality to the usual pomp and splendour, making Louvre one of Europe’s most original artistic centres. The figure of Louis XIII seems to be somewhat forgotten. Overshadowed during his lifetime by Cardinal Richelieu and after his death by his son, the Sun King, he did not make a particularly prominent mark in history. In the history of music, however, his name will forever be linked to air de cour: the solo song with instrumental accompaniment that replaced the polyphonic works in the royal chambers. It was these subtle miniatures, with their distinctive melodic and harmonic language, that prepared the ground for the rise of French opera in the 1670s.
Performers:
Ensemble Correspondances
Sébastien Daucé – conductor, harpsichord, artistic director
Programme:
Antoine Boësset (1586–1643)
Reine que je sers et que je connais (Concert de Diane et ses Nymphes)
Dialogue d’Orphée & sa troupe & des Hamadryades qu’ils attirent
Pierre Guédron (ca. 1570 – ca. 1620)
Cesse mortel d’importuner (Juste mespris de saincte Agnez)
Quels tourments [quel espoir de guérir]
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (1602–1672)
L’Entretien des Dieux^
Etienne Moulinié (1595–1676)
Il sort de nos corps emplumés (Concert de différents oyseaux)
Rompez les charmes du sommeil (Air de la Ridicule)
Louis Couperin (ca. 1626–1661)
Fantaisie pour les Violes^
Antoine Boësset
Noires forets, demeures sombres
Je suis l’adorable Équité (Récit de la Félicité, la Justice, et les Amours)
Louis Couperin
La Piémontoise^
Antoine Boësset
Segua chi vuol iniquo Amore
Michel Lambert (1610–1696)
Dialogue des Trois Grâces
Tout l’univers obeit à l’amour
Ombre de mon amant
D’un feu secret
François de Chancy
Rares fleurs, vivante peinture