A Holy Night · Marc-Antoine Charpentier
19.12.21 ___ 15:00
Chapelle royale, Versailles
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If Charpentier has achieved posterity with the first notes of his Te Deum H.146, chosen to illustrate the credits of the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1950s, his Messe de Minuit (Midnight Mass) is probably the second piece that made him successful all around the world. It invites us to re-plunge in a musical world in which the savant and popular traditions are not opposed to one another, quite the contrary: Charpentier’s whole art and science are illustrated in the invitation of these Christmas carols within a mass composed for Christmas Night. These melodies are known by everyone, peasants as well as gentlemen recognise them, and they are interlocked within a subtle counterpoint and a renewed harmony. The pleasure of the music is offered to everyone: recognising a famous melody or understanding its extraordinary arrangement. The simplicity of the original carols also gives to the whole mass an innocence and a simplicity that are not superficial when one considers it talked in universal way back then.
The In nativitatem H.416 acts as an eve before the Messe de Minuit: like the great sacred stories of Charpentier, the piece tells the story of Nativity where Angel Gabriel announces to the shepherds the Christ’s birth.
PROGRAMME
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Sub tuum praesidium
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Or nous dites Marie
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Quam gloriosa dicta sunt de te
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – in nativitatem
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Nuit
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Alma redemptoris
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Messe de Minuit
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Laissez paître vos bêtes
Marc-Antoine Charpentier – Te Deum
Booking information : Royal Chapel of Versailles
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