Search - Purcell Choir, Orfeo Orchestra :: Mondonville: Grands Motets

Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville continued and developed the French tradition of the grand motet set in place by Lully and Lalande, and four of these motets have now been recorded for Glossa by György Vashegyi with a quintet of masterly soloists, the Orfeo Orchestra and the Purcell Choir. Vashegyi, who is fast making his name in French repertoire, has chosen the music of this underrated composer to follow up his Glossa recording of Rameaus Les Fêtes de Polymnie. Mondonville, who hailed from Narbonne, was at the height of his career in Paris the second third of the eighteenth century, especially at the Concert Spirituel and with the Chambre and the Chapelle du Roi. As well as operas, oratorios and instrumental music, he composed grands motets spectacular religious works which were often performed in the public sphere. The four presented here on this two-disc set, De profundis, Magnus Dominus, Cantate Domino and Nisi Dominus are fine examples of Mondonvilles art, constantly displaying his taste for virtuosic scoring and tuneful, flowing melodies. Vocal soloists, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Daniela Skorka, Mathias Vidal, Jeffrey Thompson and Alain Buet are all well-versed in such demands, as also prove choir and orchestra. Louis Castelain, who has prepared editions for two of the motets, provides an illuminating survey of Mondonvilles life for this enthralling new recording made in Budapest under the auspices of the CMBV (Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles).