Donald Macleod explores the treasury of pieces Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote for his illustrious patron, Mlle de Guise, from theatrical entertainments to the most moving sacred texts.

It's just a case of bad timing for Marc-Antoine Charpentier that he happened to be born a decade or so after Jean-Baptiste Lully. The manipulative king's favourite held a monopoly at the Sun King's court and in the theatres. Even after his death in 1687, Charpentier had to contend with back-biting from Lully's vociferous supporters. Happily Charpentier also possessed a big reputation and a band of loyal and well-to-do supporters. In a career spanning 35 years, he enjoyed a succession of plum jobs, writing in every kind of genre for some of the most influential patrons and establishments in Paris. Indeed, perhaps Lully's restrictive practices were inadvertently his making, affording Charpentier the kind of artistic freedom to write exactly what he wanted.

For 18 years, Marc-Antoine Charpentier lived and worked in the Hôtel de Guise, the palatial Parisian residence of Marie de Lorraine, the Duchesse de Guise. Generally known as Mademoiselle de Guise, she was a very well connected aristocrat - a first cousin of Louis XIV. Donald Macleod presents complete performances of the touching Hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, probably written for Mlle de Guise's visit to a popular pilgrimage site, Notre-Dame de Liesse, near the northern French city of Laon, contrasts with a splendid motet written for her nephew's funeral and the lively instrumental Sonata in 8 Parts, the first French chamber music to be called a Sonata.

La Couronne de Fleurs (excerpts)
Teresa Watkin (soprano), Flore
Jesse Blumberg (baritone), Pan/Un Berger
Amanda Forsythe (soprano), Roselie
Dorothee Mields (soprano), Amaranthe
Mireille Lebel (mezzo-soprano), Hyacinthe
Jason McStoots (tenor), Forestan
Zachary Wilder (tenor), Mirtil
Douglas Williams (bass-baritone), Sylvandre
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra
Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Music Directors

Motet pour les trépassés, H311
Ensemble Vocal de l'Abbaye aux Dames de Saints
Les Menus Plaisirs
Michel Laplénie, conductor

Sonate a huit, H548
London Baroque:
Stephen Preston, Lisa Beznosiuk, transverse flutes
Ingrid Seifert, Richard Gwilt, violins
William Hunt, bass viol
Nigel North, theorbo
John Toll, harpsichord
Charles Medlam, director

Canticum in honorem beata virginis Mariae
Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall, director. Show less