CHATEAU VERSAILLES

The Magnificat, written to celebrate Mary's joy after the Annunciation, and the oldest Christmas Cantata of Bach (Weimar, 1713), overwhelming fresco of a Nativity, foundation of the world. With these...

Could Bach's Suites be most representative of his French identity? Composed in Germany around 1720 at the Court of K?then, like the Brandenburg Concertos, for a Francophile and gambist, they find in...

This is a compendium of festive rarities in the 'Grand Si?cle' of the French organ: their authors have almost been forgotten, secular and the sacred mix with dance rhythms, and half of these works...

Christmas time would make sacred music shined forth in monarchical France. The organists had free rein to improvise on the popular Nativity songs, which had been known to all the faithful for...

Two rival yet similar works, an illustration of a "Quarrel of the Te Deums", a true war of mottled violin scores, a frivolous echo of Louis XV's final victories. It is also the rediscovery of two of...

The discovery of Rebel's (1666-1747) Dance Symphonies, a genre mixing dance and pantomime in which the narration is delivered by the dancer alone, was a defining moment in the passion of...

In 1743, two years before Rameau's Plat?e, Boismortier created an extraordinarily modern and madcap "comic ballet", Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse. As the exuberant plot unfurls, Cervantes' hero...

Nicolas Leb?gue, the principal organist of King Louis XIV from 1678 until his death in 1702, represents the first state of perfection for the French organ. Alternating great virtuoso pieces worthy of...

Campra was the most important opera composer between Lully and Rameau. The success of Europe Galante in 1697 is a tribute to this founding work of the Opera-Ballet, mixing dance and opera in the...

Le Destin du Nouveau Si?cle [The Fate of the New Century]: what a pertinent idea for a libretto for the year 1700! This unknown opera-ballet by Campra, premiered at the Coll?ge Louis-le-Grand,...

In 1643 in Venice, Cavalli's new opera caused a sensation among the audience of the Teatro San Cassiano. L'Egisto takes it's name from the piece's main character, an Arcadian shepherd who is misled...

Mazarin managed to sign the Treaty of Paris which validates the future Peace of the Pyrenees, and therefore the marriage of Louis XIV with the Infanta of Spain in 1660. In the context of these...