Charpentier: Litanies de la Vierge, Motets pour la maison de Guise Ensemble Correspondances & Sébastien Daucé

• 1 I. Miserere mei Deus 11:13
• 2 II. Auditui meo dabis gaudiam 03:22
• 3 III. Ne projicias me 03:23
• 4 IV. Libera me 02:50
• 5 V. Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus 04:24
• 6 Antienne H.526 02:38
• 7 I. Annunciate superi 06:14
• 8 II. Haec enim Virgo 02:48
• 9 III. Psallite ergo populi 01:35
• 10 Ouverture H.536 05:30
• 11 I. Kyrie eleison 05:14
• 12 II. Speculum justitiae 02:15
• 13 III. Salus infirmorum 05:17
• 14 IV. Agnus Dei 03:47
• Total Runtime 01:00:30

Info for Charpentier: Litanies de la Vierge, Motets pour la maison de Guise

The harmonia mundi label, once well known for specializing in the French Baroque repertoire, makes a welcome and triumphant return to this treasure trove of musical delights. For their first release on harmonia mundi, Sébastien Daucé and the Ensemble Correspondances present a sumptuous interpretation of the six-voice motets composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier for the House of Guise. These works, which include the Litanies de la Vierge and the Miserere, are masterworks that exemplify Charpentier's influence on the music of the Grand Siècle. The creative genius and intense fervor of this deeply spiritual music display the blend of French and Italian flavors that were his hallmark.

„Overshadowed in the late 17th century by his politically skillful contemporary Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier is now escaping from his long shadow: the recent tremendous ENO production of his Medea showed his dramatic genius, and this alluring new CD explores his spiritual world. Biting dissonances, long chains of suspensions, piercing harmonies. One of France's best new early music groups, Ensemble Correspondances, shows total understanding of his idiom and achieves a perfect balance of clean but expressive voices with crisp and precise instrumental ensemble. Charpentier himself sang in these sacred pieces, written for the musicians of the Guise family: their intensity is alarmingly sensual.“ (Nicholas Kenyon, The Guardian)

Ensemble Correspondances
Sébastien Daucé, conductor

The ensemble Correspondances
presents mainly 17th century French sacred music; an era which saw produced a considerable number of masterpieces, some still unpublished, just waiting to be revived by young and passionate musicians.


Sébastien Daucé, the Artistic Director, and his musicians met while studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon. A dedicated collaboration blossomed to unearth rare and neglected musical treasures, revealing, through their interpretation, a whole range of emotions within these works.


Since its formation in 2009, the ensemble has performed in France, Switzerland, Germany, Italia, Japan and South-America. Its first recording for Zig-Zag Territoires, O Maria !, featuring motets by Marc-Antoine Charpentier was released in 2010 to great critical acclaim (Choc de Classica Diapason découverte, Coup de cœur de l'Académie Charles Cros, ***** Fonoforum and Supersonic in Pizzicato). This was followed by L'Archange et le Lys, a collection of motets by Antoine Boësset, the first recorded anthology of the composer.

The ensemble has recently appeared at the Saintes festival, OudeMuziek festival in Utrecht, Easter Festival in Fontevraud, Printemps des Arts de Nantes, Nuremberg, Paris, Rome and Fribourg. They have recorded extensively for the radio: Bayerischer Rundfunk, Radio-France and Radio Suisse Romande. Highlights of the forthcoming season include festival d’Ambronay, Abbaye de Royaumont, festival de Lanvellec, and a Asian tour in April 2013.

Sébastien Daucé
After a specialized program at the National Conservatory of Music of Lyon, Sébastien Daucé played under the direction of Kenneth Weiss (Didon and Aeneas, Madrigal of Monteverdi), of Gabriel Garrido (Ercole Amante of Cavailli, in the Academy of Baroque Opera at Ambronay, and recently for the recording of another Cavalli opera, Gli Amori d’Apollo e Datne,) of Raphaël Pichon (Pygmalion), of Toni Ramon (Radio France), of Françoise Lasserre (Akademia) and Geoffroy Jourdain (The Crys of Paris).

He was the assistant of Kenneth Weiss’s for the 2006 and 2007 academies at the Festival d’Art Lyrique in Aix en Provence (France).

In 2006, he founded the Ensemble Correspondances. The first concerts of this ensemble, made up of young musicians from the National Conservatory of music of Lyon and of Paris, took place in France and in Switzerland. During this time, they were recorded and aired on the radio. The Ensemble Correspondances toured Japon in December 2009 ; and have played in some prestigious festivals (Pontoise, Saintes, Utrecht). Their two firsts Cds have been recorded on the ZigZag Territories label : they both received notable press such as Choc de Classica and a Diapason découverte. Sébastien Daucé has worked, as well in the past few years, on Marc-Antoine Charpentier; in which he has published in the Abbesses Editions, three operas, in collaboration with William Christie. From 2012, he is a teacher at the Pole Supérieur Paris-Boulogne.

Booklet for Charpentier: Litanies de la Vierge, Motets pour la maison de Guise