Campra / Requiem

"Christie constructs a ductile orchestral texture relying on three cellos, a viola and a double bass augmented by the organ and a bassoon, a noble backing that magnifies the harmonics of a choir in great form." ★★★★ Bachtrack

"Campra is one of those masters, between Lully and Rameau: that generation of the early 18th century when there were a number of very great composers. He demonstrates a remarkable and very singular personality." William Christie

André Campra (1660-1744), a Provençal composer and renowned choirmaster at the cathedrals of Toulon, then Arles, Toulouse and Paris, wrote this Requiem Mass probably shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1694, while he was director of the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame. Perhaps composed for a service in memory of the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur François de Harlay, in November 1695, this mass belongs to the period when Campra's religious music was reaching its full maturity: the traditional polyphony is treated with the same expressiveness as the solo arias, which already announce the composer's taste for opera - it was at this time that he began writing his opera-ballet L'Europe galante. The instrumental passages, far from being simple preludes, interludes or postludes, also bear witness to the marked sensitivity of the future assistant master of the Chapelle Royale of Versailles.

In interpreting this masterpiece of Grand Siècle music, Les Arts Florissants once again illustrate their vocation to make people rediscover the great works of the French Baroque.