Lully: Te deum

Concert

Cast

Presentation

Homepage Lully: Te deum

Cast

Camille Poul Soprano

Claire Lefilliâtre Soprano

Jeanne Lefort Soprano

Lucy Page Soprano

Marie Zaccarini Soprano

Clément Debieuvre Countertenor

Serge Goubioud Countertenor

Cyril Auvity Tenor

Marco Angioloni Tenor

Thierry Cartier Baritone

Luc Bertin-Hugault Bass

Geoffroy Buffière Bass

Les Pages et les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles

Les Epopées

Stéphane Fuget Conductor

Presentation

To the Glory of God and the King: Exaudiat and Te Deum

With his Te Deum, the Superintendent of the King’s Music signed a major score, which established an official genre for a century. On 9 September 1677, in the Chapel of Fontainebleau, Lully conducted his Te Deum, composed for the christening of his eldest son, in the presence of Louis XIV, the child’s godfather. The work is commensurate with the event: a masterpiece of musical architecture, the imposing orchestra requiring trumpets and timpani. The Te Deum remained the most performed religious work of its time: a royal wedding, a military victory, a cure for the king… 1677 was the year of Lully’s most magnificent creations, composed for a monarch at the height of his glory, including the tragedy Atys, which became the ” King’s opera “. Of the ten or so performances of the Te Deum conducted by Lully, history has only remembered the one in the Church of the Feuillants, which caused the composer’s death in 1686: it was while beating the bar that, carried away by zeal, he pierced his foot with the end of his cane. Lully died of gangrene on 22 March 1687, but his aura remained intact until the end of the monarchy.

In addition to this Te Deum, which was regularly performed to celebrate military victories or the great events of the reign, the grand motet Exaudiat Te Dominus (1684) is also a glorification of the military King, whose weapons are supported by God. The end of the motet is as grandiloquent as can be, and the pomp of Versailles at its height: Lord, give the King Victory! Stéphane Fuget brings an end to his three-year residency at Château de Versailles dedicated to Lully’s complete Grands Motets, with his ensemble Les Epopées, and adds the magnificent Te Deum with the Pages and Singers of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles: he brings together the same number of musicians as Louis XIV had for the performances of this truly royal music…

This concert is supported by CÍSAŘ, ČEŠKA, SMUTNÝ, a law firm in Prague, Czech Republic.

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