Those interested in the music of the French Baroque will be familiar with the genre lecons de ténèbres, the settings for soprano voice of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, used in Holy Week services as candles were extinguished (hence the ‘ténèbres’, darkness); there are examples by Couperin, Charpentier, Nivers and several other composers. Lalande wrote a complete set (three lessons for each of three evenings), but only three, the third for each day, survive. These, and the similar works of other composers, are in my experience usually delivered in a delicate, docile manner, with finely shaded singing. The performers here adopt quite a different approach. Claire Lefilliâtre brings a strong voice, a sure technique and a forthright manner of delivery to the music. The sound is absolutely steady, totally free of vibrato, perfectly in tune, little graduated in dynamic, very modest in expressive shaping, open, occasionally almost raucous in tone. She deals fluently with the elaborate melismata of the settings of the Hebrew letter-names that open the sections of two of the three lecons.

Lefilliâtre brings the same style to the Miserere, a full-length setting, in which the even-numbered verses are usually sung in plainchant: this music was intended for use in convents. Here those verses are sung in simply harmonised settings for male voices, which makes quite a good effect even if not what Lalande had in mind.

I don’t find these performances very persuasive or pleasing to listen to, and don’t think they do full justice to the music, which can be hauntingly beautiful. But it is still something of a tour de force. The second CD is devoted to a 54-minute sermon on death, by JB Bossuet, delivered portentously (as doubtless it should be) in old French by Eugène Green; I imagine its appeal will be rather limited in English-speaking countries (perhaps in French ones too). It is printed in full, and in English translation, in a second booklet in this well-presented set.