Lully - Grands motets - Leonardo Garcia Alarcon

Céline Scheen, Judith van Wanroij Dessus

Mathias Vidal, Cyril Auvity Hautes-contre

Thibaut Lenaerts Taille; Alain Buet Basse-taille

Chœur de Chambre de Namur

Millenium Orchestra

Leonardo García Alarcón Conductor

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)

Grands Motets

Dies Irae – De Profundis – Te Deum

The Superintendent of the King's Music signed a considerable score, with his Te Deum,  which established an "official" genre for a century. On 9 September 1677, in the Fontainebleau Chapel, Lully conducted the Te Deum, composed for the baptism of his eldest son, in the presence of Louis XIV. The work was a masterpiece of musical architecture, with an imposing orchestra requiring trumpets and timpani. This composition remained the most performed religious work of its time: royal wedding, military victory, healing of the king... Of the ten or so performances of the Te Deum conducted by Lully, history only remembers the one in the Eglise des Feuillants, which caused the composer's death: while beating time, he pierced his foot with the end of his cane. Lully died of gangrene on 22 March 1687, but his aura remained intact until the end of the monarchy. Both his De Profundis and his Dies Irae were equally successful. The first was an act of bravado on the part of the Superintendent: during the competition organised in 1683 by Louis XIV to appoint his maîtres de musique for the Chapelle Royale, some thirty great motets composed by the competitors were played. At the end of these auditions, Lully (who had the post of Superintendent, ranking above all the others) gave his De Profundis: "Apart from the beauty of the music, the whole court admired the accuracy of the expressions which responded to the subject, and this is what makes the difference between a skillful master of music and a mediocre or bad one". He had the last word. This motet was played the same year for the royal funeral of Queen Marie-Thérèse, at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, accompanied by the Dies Irae composed for the occasion. Here are three major scores by Lully, of which Leonardo García Alarcón gives a vision that is both shimmering and profound, with his characteristic mixture of emphasis and precision!