Cherubini / Le Concert Spirituel / Niquet Cherubini & Plantade: Requiems Pour Louis CD

In 1817, two years after the restoration of the monarchy by Louis XVIII, the French court attended a performance of Cherubini's Requiem in memory of Louis XVI. A few years later, the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Marie-Antoinette provided the occasion for giving Charles-Henri Plantade's Messe des morts in her memory. In 2015, the two works were presented in a single concert at Versailles Palace. While Cherubini's Requiem, scored for mixed choir and orchestra, but without soloists, is well known, Charles-Henri Plantade's setting, which shares the same formal characteristics, is a complete discovery. It provides a striking transitional stage between the models of the Ancien Regime and early Romanticism, and displays a wealth of invention reminiscent of Mehul, Cherubini, and even Rossini. This is the first recording of Plantade's work, which was revived at the spurring of the Palazzetto Bru Zane. A noted specialist in French music and large-scale sacred pieces, Herve Niquet brings out the full strength of these two works, recorded in the Chapelle Royale at Versailles.

1. Introitus and Kyrie 2. Graduale 3. Sequentia (Dies Irae) 4. Offertorium 5. Sanctus, Benedictus 6. Pie Jesu 7. Agnus Dei Et Communio 8. Introit 9. Kyrie 10. Graduel 11. Prose (Dies Irae) 12. Offertoire 13. Sanctus 14. Pie Jesu 15. Agnus Dei