United Kingdom Charpentier at Christmas: Les Arts Florissants / William Christie (conductor) with Emmanuelle de Negri, Julie Roset (sopranos), Nicholas Scott (excessive tenor), Bastien Rimondi (tenor), Lisandro Abadie (bass-baritone). Barbican Hall, London, 19.12.2022. (CC)
Charpentier – Antiennes ‘O’ de l’Avent, H 36-43 (c. 1693) with Noëls pour les devices, H 531 and 534 (1690s); Sur la Naissance de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, H 482 (1684/5); In Nativitatem Domini Canticum, H 416 (1690)
A pleasant change from the glut of Messiahs, this: music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704). William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants is among the most revered of early music ensembles; an admiration that’s clearly well-deserved. Within the area of lower than two hours, Christie drew us into this glorious ‘alternative’ Christmas celebration
The first half was taken up with the Antiennes ‘O’ de l’Avent, interspersed with instrumental Noëls (written within the 1690s), instrumental variations of French Christmas carols. The seven antiphons every start with the vowel ‘O’ which is explored in miraculous methods by the composer. From the great thing about the opening of the third (‘O Radix Jesse’ / ‘O root of the tree of Jesse’) to the dance rhythms or within the two-violin sense of pleasure in ‘O Rex gentium’, Christie honoured each distinction. While every antiphon was supposed for a special day of the week main as much as Christmas, they make a satisfying entire when carried out as one. The customary of singing was exceptional, as was the management the instrumentalists had of their devices within the buoyant Noëls.
The sound of Les Arts Florissants is markedly wealthy (distinction for instance with the leaner Les Talents Lyriques), which supplies a wealthy baseline tonal palette that suited this music to perfection. The singing was past criticism, tuning excellent. A relatively good second of spontaneity earlier than the live performance started too: an viewers member shouted out ‘Happy Birthday’ (Christie was born December 19, 1944).
The Pastorale, Sur la Naissance de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ was premiered on Christmas Day, 1684 and provided a shift from Latin to French because the sung language. Soprano Julie Roset and tenor Nicholas Scott excelled as ‘Silvie’ and ‘Tircis’. Some readers may pay attention to Christie’s recording of this alongside In Nativitatem on Harmonia Mundi; it makes an unforgettable complement to this most lovely of Christmas concert events. Sur la Naissance de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ concentrates on the tender, lovely elements of Divine delivery, eschewing any sense of the grandeur (in some arms, bombast) of Handel’s masterpiece. Charpentier’s ability is all over the place obvious: how the doorway of recorders on the look of the angel from heaven made its emotional level. Lovely to see William Christie enjoying tambourine from the sidelines, too! Perhaps it was the infectious rhythmic spring of the refrain ‘Le Messie est donc né!’ (‘So the Messiah is born!’) that was most pleasant right here, however there isn’t any doubting the sheer mastery of Charpentier’s writing, nor of the performers’ full grasp of his idiom. Nice to see Emmanuelle de Negri among the many line-up, in effective voice, whereas bass-baritone Lisandro Abodie offered safe grounding to the soloists. The sense of collective consideration to element and to Christie’s needs was palpable, and it was Charpentier’s magnificent scores that benefitted all through the night.
Finally, In Nativitatem Domini Canticum, and a return to Latin. An evangelist narrates the Christmas story, with teams of singers because the angels and the shepherds. The opening is solely lovely, introduced right here by Les Arts Florissants as ineffably tender however with a deeply grounded bass. The pianissimo refrain ‘Memorare testamenti tui’ (‘Remember the promise you made’) was completely exceptional, a held-breath second, as was the instrumental nocturnal previous the ‘Shepherds’ Awakening’ (how rather more sturdy the later instrumental ‘The Shepherds’ Journey’). The Angel is sung by a tenor (Scott) with the utmost lightness (‘Nolite timere pastores’ / ‘Fear not shepherds’) to an infectious dance rhythm. The ultimate refrain, ‘Exultemus, jubilemus’ (‘Let us exult, let us rejoice’), led by bass solos, was a factor of purest pleasure.
Just one encore, and a cleverly chosen one: we had listened to La Naissance, H 482; we had been provided a motion from La Naissance, however H 483 (and to make issues much more complicated, there are three variations of H 483; Sébastien Daucé and his Ensemble Correspondances recorded all of them for Harmonia Mundi.
A fantastic, really touching live performance. Just one little niggle: the interpretation within the programme booklet (by Louise Riley-Scott) was not the identical as that displayed on the surtitles (by Kenneth Chalmers). In one sense it was fairly attention-grabbing to check and distinction, to see which was extra correct; in one other, it was distracting from the efficiency itself…
Nevertheless, this was a heart-warming live performance with performances of the very first rank.
Colin Clarke