Charpentier: Litanies de la Vierge

In their first release on harmonia mundi France, Sébastien Daucé and his musicians present a sumptuous interpretation of the six-voice motets composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier for the House of Guise. These works, headed by the 'Miserere', constitute an unexpected parenthesis in the music of the Grand Siècle. The creative genius, the inwardness and the intense fervour of a composer surrounded by his faithful company of singers and instrumentalists speak to us all the more intimately because Charpentier appears here as both copyist (the surviving scores are in his handwriting) and performer: he sang countertenor.

Since its formation in 2008, the Ensemble Correspondances has devoted itself chiefly to French sacred music of the 17th century. Brought together by Sébastien Daucé during their studies at the Conservatoire de Lyon, the musicians of Correspondances pursue this work (focusing notably on Marc-Antoine Charpentier) with infectious enthusiasm. Its most recent engagements have taken it to Royaumont, Ambronay, Lanvellec and Pontoise festivals, Rome, Hamburg and Hong Kong.

After postgraduate study with Yves Rechsteiner and Françoise Lengellé at the CNSM de Lyon, Sébastien Daucé went on to play under the direction of such conductors as Kenneth Weiss, Gabriel Garrido, Geoffroy Jourdain (Les Cris de Paris) and Raphaël Pichon (Ensemble Pygmalion). For the past few years he has dedicated himself to the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, three of whose operas he edited in collaboration with William Christie. His first two recordings with the Ensemble Correspondances, both for Zig-Zag Territoires, earned him widespread praise in the specialist press, with such distinctions as the Choc de Classica, Diapason Découverte, Coup de Coeur de l'Académie Charles Cros and **** in Fono Forum.