Leçons de Ténèbres

Covid-19 information : the concert in Fontevraud is unfortunately cancelled.

François Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres for one and two voices are well known to Les Arts Florissants, who have recorded and performed them on multiple occasions. Created for the liturgy of Holy Week, they were part of a ceremony commonly called ‘Ténèbres’. Indeed, the Matines service was celebrated in the darkness of night, with candles that were gradually extinguished as the new day began to dawn, marking the end of this long wake. Combining breathtaking singing with prose poetry on the Passion of Christ, these sacred scores give rise to polyphonic music in which the exaltation of faith blurs into a form of heightened sensitivity.