Publisher's Synopsis
The performance is astonishing. Two New College trebles, aged 11 and 13, sing with a musical maturity and technical focus which I have never heard bettered.George Pratt, BBC Music Magazine
When I wrote the entry on François Couperin for the New Grove Dictionary of Music, I read through every single extant piece of his music – that is apart from three motets which had not been published at the time, and which were unperformable because they lacked string parts (long since lost). Subsequently I came to see that these three motets – Resonent organa, Ornate aras and Exultent superi – were among his best. The challenge was to restore them. This I have done by composing string parts that Couperin might have written. These motets, newborn and set in the context of a selection of other sacred music – motets choisis – reveal Couperin as a master not only of keyboard music but also of vocal. Edward Higginbottom from the forward
Track Listing
François Couperin
1 Resonent organa à 3 et symphonies. Pro Sancta Cecilia
2 Tantum ergo sacramentum à 3
3 Ornate aras. Elevation à voix seule et Symphonie
4 Lauda Sion Salvatorem. Elevation à 2
5 O Domine quia refugium. Precatio ad Deum à 3
6 O misterium ineffabile. Elevation
7 Ad te levavi oculos meos, à voix seule et symphonie. Psal. [122]
8 Domine salvum fac Regem à 2
9 Exultent superi à 3 et symphonie
Total Playing time: 61'55''
Recorded in St Michael's Church, Summertown, Oxford, March 2011
Released October 2011
Novum: NCR 1384
