Cast

Sopranos, Erika Escriba et Chantal Santon          
Alto, Valer Barna-Sabadus
Tenors, Anders J. Dahlin et Robert Getchell
Bass, Frédéric Caton           

Violins, Gilone Gaubert-Jacques et Solenne Guilbert-Gauffriau
Cello, Atsushi Sakaï                      
Double bass, Joseph Carvier          
Theorbo, Laura-Monica Pustilnik
Direction, Harpsichord & organ, Christophe Rousset
Les Talens Lyriques

Programme

Giacomo Carissimi (1605 - 1674)
Historia di Jephte
Judicium Salomonis
Historia di Baltazar
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Le Reniement de Saint Pierre

Intro

The genre of “sacred stories” or the “oratorio” is fully incarnated in the figure of Carissimi. The great Biblical figures of the Jewish people come to life to a Latin text: Balthazar, the profaner, cursed by the prophecy of Daniel, Jephthah, who sacrificed his daughter to keep his promise, and Solomon, anointed with divine wisdom. Charpentier, a pupil of Carissimi, imported this genre into France at the end of the 17th century. His Reniement de Saint Pierre depicts the despair of the disciple who denies his master, in the pure Italian tradition. The didactic and moralizing form does not get in the way of feelings, exacerbated by the dramas uncovered, borne by the voices supported by the basso continuo, sometimes by a symphony as well. This is some of the most beautiful music of the oratorios of the 17th century, already popular in their time and just as much today.