It's not mentioned in the main graphics, but a substantial chunk of the music on this Harmonia Mundi release comes from the little-known composer and scholar Sébastien de Brossard, one of the few French composers from the grand era who did not work in Paris. He lived instead in Strasbourg, where he became one of the backers of the Italian style in the great taste wars of the early 18th century. His Stabat Mater is not a terribly common item, and in the performance here by La Nuova Musica under David Bates it makes a strong ...
Read More
It's not mentioned in the main graphics, but a substantial chunk of the music on this Harmonia Mundi release comes from the little-known composer and scholar Sébastien de Brossard, one of the few French composers from the grand era who did not work in Paris. He lived instead in Strasbourg, where he became one of the backers of the Italian style in the great taste wars of the early 18th century. His Stabat Mater is not a terribly common item, and in the performance here by La Nuova Musica under David Bates it makes a strong balance for François Couperin's Leçons de Ténèbres, or Tenebrae Lessons, in two ways: not only because it is Italianate, but also because it is done here in the grand choir style. It's nice to hear an exception, so often justified, to the vogue for minimal forces, and here the contrast with the intimate Couperin redounds to insight into both composers. The Couperin remains the main attraction, however. These settings, although (or because) composed for nuns in an abbey, are...
Read Less
