シャルパンティエ: テ・デウム

シャルパンティエの最高傑作「テ・デウム」
クリスティによる不朽の名演

1699年、シャルパンティエが王宮礼拝堂に仕えていた頃に書かれた「テ・デウム」は彼の最高傑作のひとつとされています。輝かしい有名なプレリュードにつづき、独唱者や合唱が活躍する楽曲がならぶこの名作を、クリスティは純粋に音楽する喜びに満ちた、生き生きとした表情で響かせています。30年以上前の録音ながら、シャルパンティエの魅力をこれ以上なくはつらつと引き出した名演です!
キングインターナショナル

Originally recorded in 1989, this disc remains a standout choice for listeners interested in beginning to explore the splendors of French Baroque musics public side. Charpentier worked in Parisian churches attended by members of the French nobility, and much of his music was connected with state celebrations. The Te Deum, H. 146, although its exact origin is unknown, is a massive festival piece with trumpets, drums, and grand gestures all around. American-French conductor William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants give the music appropriate sweep. Part of Charpentiers genius lies in the qualities of his contrasting sections for soloists and groups of solo singers: he does not simply alternate choruses and airs but balances pomp and sensuality. The full range of his writing comes to the fore in the rarely heard Missa Assumpta est Maria, H. 11, as sensitive a setting of the Catholic mass text (plus a concluding prayer for the kings health) as has ever been composed. Charpentier breaks up the text into small sections, treating each with a perfect grasp of its prosody and an original insight into its spiritual content. Hear, for example, the beginning of the Credo, with its quiet air of radiant confidence in place of the usual blaring affirmation of the faith, or the rippling exuberance of the setting of the words et resurrexit tertia diae; abruptly cut off by a metrical shift, it forces the listener to pay attention to the rest of the creed and completely avoiding the effect of text-heaviness that bedevils even the greatest composers settings of the Credo. The final Litanies de la Vierge, H. 83 (Litanies of the Virgin), make a perfect counterpart to the Te Deum, as quiet and precisely reverent as the Te Deum is imposing. Christies choristers are superbly schooled in the most minute subtleties of expression in these works, and the instrumentalists have a magical effect in the various passages in the mass where the singers fall silent. Harmonia Mundis sound has held up well, and the bottom line is that it just doesnt get any better than this.