Search - Charpentier, Capella Ricercar :: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Oeuvres pour le Port-Royal

The works recorded here were written by Charpentier for the convent of Port-Royal-de-Paris in a very plain style: typically in unison (occasionally in two parts) with organ accompaniment; variety was provided by alternating between solo voices and choir and between sung sections and solo organ. The bulk of the disc is a complete Mass setting (including propers) that Charpentier composed in honor of the convent's abbess (and her brother the Archbishop); where the composer specifies that the organist should improvise solos, Foccroulle plays colorful items from a collection of organ pieces for parish use by André Raison. Charpentier's music is tuneful and attractive but austere--when, at the elevation, we hear a luscious motet for three sopranos, the effect is almost shocking. --Matthew Westphal