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CD reviews
"Grands Motets, Vol. 2 - Compositeurs des États du Languedoc"
Ensemble Antiphona
Dir: Rolandas Muleika
rec: August 1 - 4, 2022, Toulouse, Église Saint-Pierre des Chartreux
Paraty - 2023362 (© 2024) (65'32")
Liner-notes: E/F; lyrics - translations: E/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Bernard Aymable DUPUY (1717-1789):
Exurge Domine;
Jean (?) MALET (fl 1733-1788):
Domine in virtute tua;
Joseph VALETTE DE MONTIGNY (1665-1738):
Beatus vir
[soli] Coline Bouton, Eva Tamisier, dessus;
David Tricou, Charles d'Hubert, haute-contre;
Clément Lanfranchi, taille;
Timothé Bougon, basse-taille;
Matthieu Helm, basse
Lucie Rueda, Isabelle Broussey, Thaïs Lescoul, dessus I;
Sylvie Chat, Sibylle Pomel, Mila Cheick, dessus II;
Zdenka Vodickova, bas-dessus;
Félix Vincent, Grégoire Huppé, haute-contre;
Christophe Juniet, David Chin Kwee Ng, Goeffrey Allix, taille;
Valentin Gautron, Antoine Vervier-Dasque, basse-taille;
Bruno Arliguie, François Bourlon, Benjamin Gout-Munoz, Lucas Sonzogni, basse
Johanne Maître, Nathalie Petibon, recorder, oboe;
Amélie Boulas, bassoon;
Pauline Henric, Camille Suffran, Sophie Castaing, violin;
Susan Edward, cello;
Michaël Chanu, double basse
Patrick Vivien, theorbo;
Saori Sato, organ
In the 17th and 18th centuries Paris and Versailles were not only the political but also the musical centres of France. A number of composers, whose oeuvre is now part of the standard repertoire of baroque music, were born elsewhere, but moved to Paris to further their career. That does not mean that no music of quality was written in 'the province'. The disc to be reviewed here is part of a project initiated by Rolandas Muleika and his Antiphona Ensemble in Toulouse, aiming at rediscovering the baroque musical styles of the South of France. The grands motets included in the programma can be connected to the États de Languedoc, a provincial assembly gathering each year. At these annual sessions some concerts were organized. The appointment of Étienne Moulinié (1599-1676), one of France's main composers, as Intendant de la musique aux États du Languedoc, attests to the importance of these events. The music performed there has been given little attention to date. It is telling that none of the three composers represented here have an entry in New Grove.
The eldest of them is Joseph Valette de Montigny, who was born in Béziers, a town in the Languedoc. He started his musical career as a choirboy in the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse. In 1689, at the age of just 24, he was appointed maître de musique of the Cathedral. He did not stay long, as in the next years he acted in the same position in the cathedrals of Narbonne and Dijon. At the end of the century he started travelling across Europe. He stayed for a while in Amsterdam and then moved to London, where he wrote some funeral music. In 1702 he was in Copenhagen, where he composed a cantata. He then returned to France, where he stayed in Lyons and Paris. Between 1711 and 1716 he was in Italy. After his return he worked in Senlis and in Bordeaux. During the last ten years of his life, Valette de Montigny acted as the director of the maitrise of the collégiale Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. There he asked the chapter to attract more musicians, apparently needed for the music he was planning to perform. The recruitment of foreign musicians for performances at large religious events is documented. We owe the knowledge of Valette de Montigny and his work to the musicologist Benoît Michel, who put together a catalogue of his output, which comprises 48 pieces: around ten secular or instrumental pieces, 24 motets, 9 Noëls and four cantiques spirituels. Unfortunately, about half of his oeuvre has been lost.
This fate also befell his grands motets. He composed eleven such pieces, but only four of them have been preserved, and as one of these is incomplete, only three can be performed. Two of them have been recorded before by Rolandas Muleika (Paraty, 2021), and the present disc includes the third. Beatus vir is one of the Vesper psalms, and therefore frequently set by composers across Catholic Europe. This motet dates from between 1725 and 1729. The genre of the grand motet was 'invented', as it were, by Henri du Mont and Pierre Robert, and became especially prominent through Michel-Richard de Lalande, whose motets were the favourites of Louis XIV. Such works were also performed at the Concert Spirituel, a concert series founded in 1725. In the course of time the genre developed stylistically: in the early stages they were basically written for a petit choeur and a grand choeur with orchestra. The members of the petit choeur were responsible for the performance of the mostly rather short solo episodes. Under Jean-Baptiste Lully the grand motet saw a stylistic evolution from a piece for choir with solo episodes to a motet in which the solo passages have a more independent place. That is also the style in which Valette de Montigny's motets are written. Beatus vir is divided into ten sections, one for each verse; the verses five and six are taken together, and at the end the doxology is added. The key is B flat, which Marc-Antoine Charpentier characterised as "magnificent and joyful". Two verses derive from this key. 'Exortum est in tenebris' ("A light has been shed on the righteous in the darkness: the Lord is lenient, merciful and just") is a récit for basse-taille in G minor, and 'In memoria aeterna' ("For ever will the righteous be remembered. Whatever the bad omen, he will fear nothing") is in B flat minor. The last verse is the most dramatic: "The evil one will consider him with indignation: he will grind his teeth and waste away. The evil one's desire will perish." The last word - peribit - is repeated by the tutti a number of times, in the stile concitato, and after the last repetition the music suddenly stops. This reminds me of the way Giacomo Carissimi set such passages.
When this motet was performed, Valette de Montigny wanted Bernard Aymable Dupuy to sing the récit 'Paratum cor eius'. He was born in Toulouse and received his musical education in the choir school of Saint-Étienne cathedral, which he entered in 1715. He later became a singer in the cathedral choir, but after a few years he entered the choir of the Saint-Semin basilica. Exurge Domine is a grand motet he composed in 1738, with the aim of being appointed maître de musique at Saint-Étienne cathedral, a post he did not get. Dupuy was described in a dictionary of 1823 as a composer who admired Italian music, and was highly esteemed by, among others, François-Joseph Gossec. Whereas most grand motets are settings of particular Psalms, either complete or only in extracts, Exurge Domine is a compilation of verses from six different psalms. Each verse is allocated to a different section. The scoring varies from one to three solo voices and tutti. It opens with a symphonie, which is followed by a récit for haute-contre, dominated by ascending figures ("Rise up my Lord"), turning into a trio of haute-contre, tenor (taille) and bass. The second verse is a dramatic setting for two basses of the text: "So that my enemies will say: at last we have destroyed him." Another dramatic episode is the fifth verse in A minor ("tender and plaintif"), scored for baritone (basse-taille) and choir: "Fill my enemies with confusion and trouble. Let them turn away from me as quickly as possible, ashamed to see me triumph over their hatred."
The last work is from the pen of a composer with the name of Valet. It is assumed that his Christian name was Jean, and that he was the son of André Malet, who was maître de musique at Saint Pierre cathedral in Montpellier, a post he held himself from 1733 to 1788. Domine in virtute is a setting of verses from Psalm 20 (21). It is divided in seven verses: the first four sections are in E minor ("serious and magnificent"), the remaining verses in E major ("sweetly joyful"). The motet opens with a symphonie, turning into a récit for haute-contre. Words are singled out through coloratura. Other means of expression in this motet are dotted rhythms and chromaticism. The motet closes in joyful fashion on the text "Rise up Lord in your power and we will celebrate your glory with our hymns and our canticles."
The three grands motets on this disc demonstrate that outside the centre of France music of high quality was written. They are in no way inferior to what was performed at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles and the Concert Spirituel in Paris. We should be grateful to performers like Rolandas Muleika and his Ensemble Antiphona for willing to dug up such fine compositions as we have here. It is a matter of good fortune that the performances are excellent. It is not that often that a team of soloists is that much consistent in its approach, and all the voices are really good. That is the case here: each solo episode is perfectly realised, and the ensemble is immaculate. Choir and orchestra can compete with the best.
This disc is an essential acquaintance for everyone who likes French baroque music.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Ensemble Antiphona