SPECIAL EVENT:
French Baroque:
Charpentier’s Messe de minuit and more
Ensemble Correspondances
DEC. 6
Under the direction of the harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé, the singers and instrumentalists of Ensemble Correspondances have become a benchmark ensemble for seventeenth-century French repertory. The ensemble will usher in a joyful holiday season in a one-night-only special event in Berkeley with a French Baroque program featuring Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de minuit pour Noël (Midnight mass for Christmas).
If Charpentier found his way back to posterity with the first notes of his Te Deum (H.146), chosen to illustrate the credits of the Eurovision programs in the 1950s, the Messe de Minuit is probably the second work that has made him known throughout the world. It is an invitation to immerse oneself in a musical world where scholarly and popular traditions are not opposed. On the contrary: all of Charpentier’s art and science is illustrated in this interweaving of beloved French carols within a mass composed for Christmas Eve, with the simplicity of original tunes breathing freshness into the solemn joy of a Mass setting.
Other celebratory and seasonal pieces by Charpentier round out this can’t-miss holiday program!
Musicians: Sopranos: Caroline Weynants, Amélie Raison, Caroline Dangin Bardot; Altos: Lucile Richardot, Marie Pouchelon; Tenors: Richard Pittsinger, Randol Rodriguez; Basses: Étienne Bazola, Lysandre Châlon
Simon Pierre, violin; Béatrice Linon, violin; Lucile Perret, flute; Johanne Maître, oboe; Mathilde Vialle, Julie Dessaint, viola da gamba; François Gallon, violin bass; Thibaut Roussel, theorbo; Sébastien Daucé, organ, harpsichord, conductor
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 4:00 PM
First Church Berkeley UCC (First Congregational)
2345 Channing Way
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Program:
Sub tuum praesidium
Quam gloriosa dicta sunt de te
In nativitatem
(Intermission)
Nuit
O Miraculum! (Sébastien de Brossard)
Messe de Minuit
The following works are interspersed with Messe de Minuit:
Joseph est bien marié
O sacramentum pietatis
Or nous dites Marie
Canticum in Nativitate
Founded in Lyon in 2009, Correspondances brings together under the direction of the harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé a group of singers and instrumentalists, all of whom are specialists in baroque music. In a few short years of existence, Correspondances has become a benchmark ensemble in the seventeenth-century French repertory. Placing itself under the auspices of Baudelaire’s notion of correspondences between the arts, it performs music whose sonorities can still directly touch today’s listeners while presenting staged productions of rarer and more original forms.
The rediscovery of previously unpublished works, and the expression of a style as close as possible to the 17th century’s, is at the core of the ensemble’s project.The ensemble’s commitment to breathe new life into already well-known composers and restoring the image of figures less familiar today but celebrated and frequently performed in their own time has already yielded twenty critically acclaimed recordings, which have earned national and international distinctions.
“Sébastien Daucé’s understated conducting brings to life the harmony between the musicians and singers. Serenity prevails over tragedy, with an emphasis on dialogue and communication between the performers and conductor, between the musicians and singers, and between the Correspondances ensemble and the audience.”
“The instrumental textures provided by Ensemble Correspondances are testament to their virtuosity, the ensemble’s tasteful ornamentation and nuanced articulation continually highlighting layers of beauty and intricacy in Charpentier’s music.”
Presented with support of the Institut français in Paris.
With the support of the National Music Center in France.
Supported by Albertine Music, a program of Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation.