The concept of this album is rather musicological. Ensemble Correspondances and its leader, Sébastien Daucé, are specialists in the music of Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and general listeners may be aware that Charpentier was the most Italian-influenced of French 17th century composers, if even that. Daucé and company explore Charpentier's world in greater detail. They go beyond the influence of Charpentier's teacher Giacomo Carissimi, who does not even appear on the program, and include music by a variety of ...
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The concept of this album is rather musicological. Ensemble Correspondances and its leader, Sébastien Daucé, are specialists in the music of Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and general listeners may be aware that Charpentier was the most Italian-influenced of French 17th century composers, if even that. Daucé and company explore Charpentier's world in greater detail. They go beyond the influence of Charpentier's teacher Giacomo Carissimi, who does not even appear on the program, and include music by a variety of mostly little-known Italian composers from different cities. These are musicians that Charpentier would likely have heard as he traveled through Italy as a young man, and in a few cases, the connections are direct. Back in Paris, he copied out the Missa Mirabiles elationes maris of Francesco Beretta, a multi-choir work of the sort that was popular in Italy but that Charpentier attempted only in the Messe à quatre choeurs or Mass for four choirs that forms the culmination of the music...
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