A concert of glorious rich choral pieces and some lively orchestral music. We are delighted once again to be performing with one of London's top choirs and directed by Oliver John Ruthven (who conducted our moving 'Concert for Gloria and Marco' last year in memory of those Grenfell Tower victims).
Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a great deal of religious music and also much for the stage in 17th century Paris, though not public opera which was held under a monopoly by Lully but mostly incidental music for plays or small-scale peas for private performance. The opening of his Te Deum is, of course, famous as the signature tune of the European Broadcasting Union and we play this in homage to our European friends.
Jean-Fery Rebel, who studied under Lully, was a composer at the Court of Louis XIV and a member of his renowned "Vingt-quatre violons du roi." He wrote some rather audacious music and the piece we play, Les caractères de la danse, is certainly full of strange rhythms and harmonies. It was performed in London in 1725 under the direction of a certain George Frederic Handel.
Louis XIV was of course well-known for his love of dancing and the famous portrait of him by Hyacinthe Rigaud in 1701 shows a splendid pair of unnaturally young and elegant legs for a 63 year old, ending in a pair of funky orange dancing shoes. Dance music is a central part of French baroque style and the suite from Rameau's first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, of 1733, is full of imaginatively realised dance movements. This was a revolutionary work at odds with the stiff, formality of Lully's operas.
Louis XV unfortuately succeeded Louis XIV at the age of 5, becoming King, proper, at the advanced age of 13. His reign oversaw the Enlightenment - perhaps French culture's finest period - but also was almost continual warfare and economic failure and not too long after Louis died came the French Revolution. He was however well-loved as a man and in turn loved many women including of course Madam de Pompadour. She was a great patron of the arts and made sure music was performed regularly at Versaille to please the king, much of it by Rameau. She also helped out Jean-Joseph Mondonville who rose to become the Master of the Music of the (Royal) Chapel.