Clérambault Chants & Motets for the Royal House of Saint-Louis

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Louis-Nicolas Clérambault

Label: FNAC Music

Magazine Review Date: 2/1995

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 135

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 592316

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Premier Livre d'Orgue, Movement: Suite de deuxième ton	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Jean Boyer, Organ Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Premier Livre d'Orgue, Movement: Suite de premier ton	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Jean Boyer, Organ Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Justificeris Domine	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Miserere mei Deus	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Magnificat	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Exultet in Domino	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
O salutaris hostia	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
O felix Maria	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Cantate Vincentium	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Domine salvum fac Regem	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer
Hodie Christus natus est	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Gloria in excelsis Deo	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Domine ante te	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Immolabit haedum	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Regina caeli laetare	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Hodie Maria virgo caelos ascendit	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Factum est silentium	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Exultate Deo	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
De profundis clamavi	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol
Benedictus	Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer (Les) Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Emmanuel Mandrin, Conductor Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Composer Sylvie Moquet, Bass viol

Author: Nicholas Anderson

This is a mainly successful attempt to present Clerambault's Livre d'Orgue (c1710) in an appropriate context, that is, placing the seven pieces which make up each of the two suites with an alternating pattern of organ solo and plainchant canticle (Magnificat and Benedictus respectively). Additionally, there are petits motets for a variety of occasions in the Church Year, all of the latter Clerambault wrote for the Convent of Saint-Cyr where he had been appointed organist and music master in 1715. Later, in 1733, Clerambault published these pieces together with revised versions of motets by his predecessor at Saint-Cyr, Guillaume Gabriel Nivers.
The most familiar works on this two-disc album are the two organ suites of the Premier Livre d'Orgue which are excellently played by Jean Boyer on the organ of the Abbey of Saint Michel en Thierache which dates from 1714. Decidedly less polished but none the less enjoyable and with an appropriately authentic flavour, is the singing of Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr. This group consists of nine women's voices divided between soprano and mezzo-soprano with a string basso-continuo provided by Sylvie Moquet, and Emmanuel Mandrin (organ) who also directs the ensemble. With such a vocal disposition as this the motets are, not surprisingly, straightforwardly constructed though not without hints of the florid Italianisms with which so many French composers of the time were preoccupied. Though often virtuosic in his vocal writing Clerambault strikes my ears as being far less resourceful than Charpentier, in the previous century, in writing for women's voices. I'm thinking especially of the splendid Magnificat (H81) which the older composer had written for the nuns of the Port-Royal Convent. Clerambault is always practical and seldom dull but the vocal pieces on this disc fail to ignite my enthusiasm in the way that Charpentier almost invariably does. There is, in short, nothing in this music which is even remotely suggestive of the exceptional talent which Clerambault displayed in his secular cantates francaises of which he became a renowned master.
To sum up, a fascinating release, though musically of greater interest for its organ pieces than its vocal ones. The recording is first-rate and the organ itself a wonderful-sounding instrument.'