musica Dei donum
Concert reviews
"Hidden Women"
Ensemble Correspondfances/Sébastien Daucé
concert: Jan 17, 2025, Utrecht, TivoliVredenburg (Hertz)
Ludovico AGOSTINI (1534-1590):
Ecco col nostro Duca;
Una si Chiara luce
Maurizio CAZZATI (1616-1678):
Balletto IV;
Girolamo FRESCOBALDI (1583-1643):
Canzon III;
Giuseppe GIAMBERTI (c1600-1662):
Similabo eum;
Veni electa mea;
Luzzasco LUZZASCHI (1545-1607):
Cor mio deh non languire;
Non sa che sia dolore;
O dolcezze amarissime d’amore;
Stral pungente d’amore
anon:
Amor Jesu;
Fasciculus myrrhae;
Salve, Jesu piissimae;
Antoine BOËSSET (1586-1643):
Anna mater matris redemptoris nostri;
Domine salvum fac regem;
Salve Regina;
Louis-Nicolas CLÉRAMBAULT (1676-1749):
Miserere;
Etienne MOULINIÉ (c1600-after 1669):
Dum esset Rex;
plainchant:
Ave Maria
Caroline Bardot, Perrine Devillers, Maud Haering, Caroline Weynants, soprano;
Ariane Le Fournis, Blandine de Sansal, contralto;
Étienne Floutier, viola da gamba, lirone;
Angélique Mauillon, harp;
Gabriel Rignol, theorbo;
Sébastien Daucé, organ
The Ensemble Correspondances, directed by Sébastian Daucé, are known specialists in the field of French baroque music. Through recordings and concerts they have established themselves as such. However, they also explore other repertoire: they made a fine recording of Dieterich Buxtehude's cantata cycle Membra Jesu nostri, and have recorded Italian music of the 17th century.
During a short tour through the Netherlands they brought two sides of their activities together. They presented a new programme, entitled "Hidden women", which focuses on music written for women in the late 16th century in Italy and during the 17th and early 18th centuries in France.
The first part of the programme brought us to the court of the Este dynasty in Ferrara. Alfonso II d'Este was very proud of an exquisite ensemble of three women, who were real virtuosos in their singing of madrigals. They became known as the Concerto delle donne. They were not only involved in the performance of madrigals, alongside other singers, but they also performed music specifically written or arranged for them. The man responsible for most of their repertoire was Luzzasco Luzzaschi, one of the great composers of madrigals at the time. Alfonso was so proud of his singers and what Luzzaschi composed for them, that - apart from his family - only a few were allowed to listen to their performances. He also put under lock and key the music that they performed. It was only after his death that Luzzaschi felt free to publish some of that repertoire. Thanks to that modern performs can show what the ladies were singing.
It easy to understand why Luzzasco was considered one of the trailblazers of the style that was to emerge around 1600. These pieces are for voices and instruments, according to Luzzaschi's indication: per cantare e sonare. In them one can hear the virtuosic ornamentation and coloratura one may know from the diminutions for instruments which were written at about the same time. The various pieces, by Luzzaschi and by Lodovico Agostini, were sung by six singers, four sopranos and two contraltos, in different combinations. They delivered marvellous performances, making it easy to understand why the Concerto delle Donne caused such an excitement. One could also admire the brilliant music of Luzzaschi, who may have been a little-known quantity to many in the audience.
There was only one issue: in all the pieces Daucé accompanied the singers on the organ. This instrument was certainly used in secular music, but it seems rather unlikely that Luzzasco accompanied the ladies on the organ. A harpsichord would have been a more logical option.
In his introduction to the concert Daucé mentioned that he had inserted a few pieces written in Rome at about the same time, without specifying them (therefore they are not included in the list of works in the header). Stylistically they perfectly fit into the programme. The Italian section ended with a few sacred pieces of a somewhat later date, obviously with basso continuo, which were more modest, but not fundamentally different from the secular pieces. It underlined that there was no watershed between the sacred and the secular at the time.
As any music lover knows, until well into the 18th century women were not allowed to sing in church. The only place where they could sing sacred music was in monasteries. Both in Italy and in France such monasteries existed, and certainly in Italy some of the nuns were musically gifted and wrote the music to be performed at their monasteries themselves. Daucé could have decided to explore this repertoire, but rather opted to move to France, and perform music that was not written by women, but for them. Especially the Maison de Saint-Cyr, an institution for girls from the impoverished aristocracy, was a centre of music: several composers of repute wrote music for this institution, such as Henri du Mont and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault. A number of pieces by Antoine Boësset which have been preserved in manuscript, are scored for one to four high voices, which indicates that they were intended for performance by religious women (les Dames religieuses), probably the nuns of the Royal Abbey of Montmartre. Three of his motets were performed.
The concert ended with the latest and longest work of the night, the Miserere by Clérambault, a setting of Psalm 50 (51), one of the seven penitential psalms sung during Lent, and especially Holy Week. As one may expect it is a very expressive setting. The opening verse sets the tone, as it includes some strong dissonances. This verse is somewhat later repeated. The various verses are set for solo voices or tutti, and Clérambault does not miss any opportunity to illustrate the text. The interpretation did full justice to every aspect of this work, which resulted in an incisive and highly expressive performance. The individual singers showed their command in the treatment of the text, and their voices blended perfectly. Thanks to the precise intonation, the dissonances came off to full effect.
The concert could not have found a better conclusion than with this brilliant, but little-known work by Clérambault. It was received by long standing ovations from the audience and rightly so. The Ensemble Correspondances proved once again that it is top of the bill in the world of early music.
Johan van Veen (© 2025)