Marc-Antoine Charpentier
's
Messe de Minuit
("
Midnight Mass
") has been a popular work almost ever since it was composed around 1694, and it was one of the first French Baroque pieces to be recorded during the LP era. It is an absolutely irresistible Christmas piece, with French folk tunes woven into the polyphonic texture. This recording comes along just in time for the 2023 Christmas season, and it should find plenty of listeners.
Ensemble Correspondances
and leader
Sebastien Dauce
are specialists in the music of
Charpentier
, and they capture the particular lilt of this wonderful work with delicately elegant singing throughout. The ensemble is small, with just 11 singers; this may be a bit undersized in a French scene that favored big groups (choral performances at the king's court may have had 100 or more), but the mass was written for a small Jesuit group, and the dimensions feel natural. Another draw is the presence of two sizable small-ensemble cantatas, quite different from each other and sung with the right dramatic emphasis. Here, the forces are perfectly appropriate, and the sound engineering from the Seine Musicale concert hall is ideal. A very satisfying holiday release for the French Baroque lover in one's life. ~ James Manheim