Although the manuscripts of the Symphonies state that they were “ordinarily played at the king’s supper,” their imagination reaches far beyond that setting. The airs and dances, performed by various instruments, are often drawn from the operas, ballets, and other entertainments that Lalande composed to delight the court. Thus, around the royal table, they conjure a world of characters, passions, intrigues, and portraits: echoes of battles (Air des combattants), idyllic meadows (Musette, Marche des bergers, La villageoise), seaside marches (Marche des matelots), or the fury of nature (La tempête de Mr Rebel). These are the sounds of a palace where life, more than anywhere else, is a performance, ennobled by the brilliance of trumpets (Prélude and Chaconne), a Passacaglia of royal bearing, and the Caprice de Villers-Cotterets, one of the King’s favorite pieces “often requested by His Majesty.”

A vast reservoir of dances and character pieces to draw from, the Symphonies for the King’s Suppers were compiled in 1703, at a time when Versailles lived almost entirely to the sound of Lalande’s music. Having entered the King’s service as an organist twenty years earlier, the composer quickly became a favorite, holding some of the most coveted positions at court. From the chapel to the royal apartments, the entire château resonated with his compositions. His Majesty prayed, dined, laughed, and wept to their sound.

Vincent Dumestre, a connoisseur of the music from the time of Louis XIV, gathers here (in concert and for recording in our discography collection) the finest instrumentalists to resurrect these gastronomic and royal, thus sumptuous, pieces.

With the support of the Fonds de dotation Françoise Kahn-Hamm

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