Campra / Requiem

"Christie builds a supple orchestral texture based on three cellos, a viola, and a double bass, augmented by the organ and bassoon, a noble support that magnifies the harmonics of a choir in top form." ★★★★ Bachtrack

"Like Lully and Rameau, Campra belongs to that generation of great composers who flourished in the early 18th century. He displays a remarkable and highly distinctive 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 directing the children's choir at Notre-Dame. Perhaps composed for a memorial service for the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur François de Harlay, in November 1695, this mass belongs to a period when Campra's religious music reached its full maturity: traditional polyphony is treated with the same expressiveness as the solo arias, which already foreshadow 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 mere preludes, interludes, or postludes, also testify to the marked sensitivity of the future assistant master of the Royal Chapel of Versailles.

In performing this monument of Grand Siècle music, Les Arts Florissants once again demonstrate their commitment to rediscovering the great works of the French Baroque.