Search - Marc-Antoine Charpentier, William Christie, Les Arts Florissants :: Le Reniement De St Pierre

Charpentier's short Latin oratorio on the denial of St. Peter may have been intended for performance in a Holy Week church service, but it is among the most dramatic works he ever wrote. The dialogue is set as believably as in any opera; Peter's increasingly frantic denials as questions from the bystanders (sung by voices in the chorus) swirl around him are gripping; the grinding, anguished dissonances in the final chorus (on the words "and wept bitterly") are stunning. The Lenten meditations for male voices that complete the disc are less dramatic, but beautifully somber. (They include, by the way, a fascinating reduction for three voices of the St. Peter oratorio.) --Matthew Westphal