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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Composer of the Week: Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704): Episode 1: Italy v France

Episode 1

Episode 1: Italy v France

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Italy v France

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704), Italy v France

Donald Macleod explores Charpentier's formative years. With Le Reniement de Saint Pierre.

Donald Macleod explores Charpentier's formative years, with the dramatic motet Le Reniement de Saint Pierre and a discourse on pleasure, Les Plaisirs de Versailles.

Donald Macleod explores Marc-Antoine Charpentier's formative years, with the dramatic motet Le Reniement de Saint Pierre and a discourse on pleasure, "Les Plaisirs de Versailles"

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. 

Back home after three years in Italy, the Italianate influences audible in Charpentier's music stirred up existing tensions over the merits of French and Italian style. 
Donald Macleod presents complete performances of the early Italian-influenced dramatic motet Le Reniement de Saint Pierre and the charming entertainment Les Plaisirs de Versailles, in which Conversation and Music argue as to which of them is indispensable.

Te Deum, H.146 (excerpt) 
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, director 

Intermèdes: Le Mariage forcé
Les Arts Florissants 
William Christie, director 

Le Reniement de Saint Pierre,H 424 
Natalie Clifton-Griffith (soprano), Ostiaria
Grace Davidson, soprano Ancilla 
Andrew Tortise (tenor) Petrus 
Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Jesus 
James Mustard, Eamonn Dougan (bass), Historicus 
Nicholas Mulroy, (tenor), Cognatus Malchi
David Miller, Lynda Sayce, theorbo
Richard Campbell, bass viol
Silas Standage, organ 
Members of Ex Cathedra Choir and Baroque Ensemble 
Jeffrey Skidmore, director 

Les Plaisirs de Versailles H 480
Sophie Daneman (soprano), La Musique
Katalin Kàrolyi (mezzo soprano), La Conversation 
Steve Dugardin (countertenor), Le Jeu 
Jean-François Gardeil (baritone), Comus 
François Piolino (tenor), Un Plaisir 
Patricia Petibon, soprano
Monique Zanetti, soprano 
Fernand Benadi, baritone 
Les Arts Florissants 
William Christie, director.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Donald Macleod explores the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. In a 35-year career, he had prestigious jobs, writing in every genre for some of the most influential patrons and establishments in Paris

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Episode 1: Italy v France

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