Search - Marc-Antoine Charpentier, René Jacobs, Concerto Vocale :: Charpentier: Leçons de Ténèbres du Jeudy Sainct

Settings of Lamentations by a baroque master

07/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Given the number of recordings of Charpentier's tenebres available one might think that they had been done to death. Wrong. In fact Charpentier wrote so many beautiful settings of these latin texts that the recordings by Jacobs (3CDs), Lesne (3CDs), Gester (1CD) and now Niquet (1CD) hardly contain any overlaps at all. None of the three lecons de tenebres recorded here have ever been re-recorded elsewhere. A listing of recordings (by Hitchcock numbers) is as follows:92 3ème leçon du Mercredi Gester
93 3ème leçon du Jeudi Gester
96 1ère leçon du Mercredi Jacobs
95 3ème leçon du Vendredi Lesne
95 3ème leçon du Vendredi Gester
97 2ème leçon du Mercredi Jacobs
98 3ème leçon du Mercredi Jacobs
102 1ère leçon du Jeudi Jacobs
103 2ème leçon du Jeudi Jacobs
104 3ème leçon du Jeudi Jacobs
105 1ère leçon du Venredi Jacobs
105 1ère leçon du Venredi Lesne
106 3ème leçon du Venredi Jacobs
110 3ème leçon du Venredi Jacobs
111 In monte Oliveti Jacobs
112 Tristis est anima mea Jacobs
113 Amicus meus Jacobs
115 Eram quasi agnus Gester
117 Seniores populi Lesne
119 O Juda Gester
120 1ère leçon du Mercredi Lesne
121 1ère leçon du Jeudi Lesne
126 Tristis est anima mea Lesne
128 Velum templum scissum Lesne
130 Jerusalem surge Lesne
131 Ecce quomodo Lesne
133 Tanquam ad latronem Lesne
134 O vos omnes Gester
135 3ème leçon du Mercredi Niquet
136 3ème leçon du Jeudi Niquet
136 3ème leçon du Jeudi Lesne
137 3ème leçon du Vendredi Niquet
138 2ème leçon du Mercredi Lesne
139 2ème leçon du Jeudi Lesne
140 3ème leçon du Venredi Lesne
141 3ème leçon du Mercredi Lesne
144 Omnes amici mei LesneJacobs on this disc does not include antiphons or other liturgical pieces (unlike Gester and Lesne), nor does his own alto voice feel as assured as Lesne's, nevertheless this is a lovely serene and sombre recording of these works and a good introduction to the whole genre. Other composers of tenebres include Sermisy, Lambert, and perhaps most famously Delalande."