The Lessons for Tenebrae by Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726) are performed less frequently than those by François Couperin and Charpentier. Developed from the plainchant Lamentations of Jeremiah used in the liturgy for Matins and Lauds on the last three days of Holy Week, Lalande’s settings for solo voice and continuo show a more intimately understated aspect of his art than the celebrated grands motets that were popular at the Concert Spirituel. It is unknown when or for whom they were written but perhaps they relate in some way to Philidor’s remark in 1729 that he copied out a complete cycle of nine Leçons de Ténèbres that was apparently for an Augustinian convent.

Ensemble Correspondances present a collection of only three lessons (one from each daily cycle) that was published posthumously in 1730, along with a setting of the psalm Miserere. In accordance with practices suggested in some historical sources, Sébastien Daucé’s texturally varied continuo group of harpsichord, organ, bass viols and lutes inserts brief ritournelle interludes during sections, and bass viol countermelodies are added. Sophie Karthäuser’s plangent singing covers a broad range of dynamic expression without ever obscuring a refined emotional essence, and tasteful embellishments always serve the meaning of the Lamentation texts. Her florid solo verses in Lalande’s Miserere are juxtaposed with simple choral verses sung by a group of nine women. Plainchant antiphons are intoned ardently by the nine ‘nuns’, and frame Lalande’s four pieces within a pseudo-liturgical context (these are selected from a source published contemporaneously in 1730).