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!