Hervé Niquet returns to the sacred music of the French Baroque: the ceremonial masterpiece of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s concertante Missa Assumpta est Maria, written for solo and choral voices with orchestral accompaniment, a clear reflection of the composer’s mature style, written in the last decade of his life.
Hervé Niquet, conductor
Chantal Santon-Jeffery, dessus
Hanna Bayodi-Hirt, dessus
François-Nicolas Geslot, haute-contre
Romain Champion, taille
Benoît Arnould, basse
Le Concert Spirituel, choir and orchestra
Recorded at IRCAM, Paris, in July 2008
Engineered and mastered by Manuel Mohino
Produced by Dominique Daigremont
Maturity definitely comes through also in Niquet’s interpretation (and this is his fifth recording of music by Charpentier for Glossa alone): a sureness of touch in this repertoire is underpinned by a painstaking scrutiny of the sources, allowing the French conductor to make some original choices for the interpolations within the Mass Ordinary sections - instrumental and vocal in symphonies and motets. Zest, vigour and lightness of touch remain potent elements of Niquet’s approach for the music of this most spectacular of French composers.
