Jean-Luc Ho

Version with a French historical organ (in grandstand):

DE LALANDE Miserere 

CHARPENTIER Little motets of Nivers

DU CAURROY / COUPERIN
Fantasies of viola
Organ pieces

Version with harpsichord:

DE LALANDE Miserere 

CHARPENTIER Little motets of Nivers

COUPERIN
Suite of viola
Harpsichord pieces

The office of Darkness, a musical genre especially dedicated to the period of Holy Week, appears in the 17th century and will experience considerable growth throughout the Great Century: the texts of the lamentations of Jeremiah, and more generally, the psalms, responses and verses exhorting the listener to meditate on his sinful condition and on the painful passion of Christ, are given in the form of motets, lessons and "miserere". Many French composers were inspired by these painful texts such as Michel-Richard de Lalande, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, or Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers. The style is intimate and sober, the pieces being most often reserved for the performance of a single voice accompanied by a continuous bass, because the genre and the religious period require it.But these vocal works also combine a great theatrical expressiveness with the refinement of the ornamentation, borrowing sometimes from the vocals of court tune During this concert, the listener is invited to experience both the great interiority and deep emotion that emerge from these jewels of the French spiritual baroque".

Distribution:
Caroline Dangin-Bardot, voice
Jean-Luc Ho, organ or harpsichord
Etienne Floutier, viola da gamba