A walk through the galleries at Versailles will reveal any number of artists familiar even to casual students of art history, but recordings of music by Michel-Richard de Lalande are not abundant despite his absolutely central role in music at the court of the Louis XIV, the Sun King. This is partly because imaginative realizations of de Lalande's music have been sparse, but that problem has been solved by Ensemble Correspondances and its able director, Sébastien Daucé. Daucé offers three grands motets , large settings of ...
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A walk through the galleries at Versailles will reveal any number of artists familiar even to casual students of art history, but recordings of music by Michel-Richard de Lalande are not abundant despite his absolutely central role in music at the court of the Louis XIV, the Sun King. This is partly because imaginative realizations of de Lalande's music have been sparse, but that problem has been solved by Ensemble Correspondances and its able director, Sébastien Daucé. Daucé offers three grands motets , large settings of Latin psalms with strings, winds, and a large continuo section. Louis, who designated de Lalande his favorite composer, might well have heard a much bigger choir than the one Daucé assembles here, but the recording avoids the delicate chamber style of performing Baroque choral music. The best feature is that Daucé catches the incredible variety that fills de Lalande's large canvas. In addition to big homophonic choral pieces, de Lalande offers vocal solos in French and Italian...
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