Plaisirs du Louvre Features Compositions Created for the Rich and Intricate Court Ceremony Culture of King Louis XIII of France, 1601-1643
Program Includes Works by Antoine Boësset, Louis Couperin, Étienne Moulinié, Pierre Guédron, and François de Chancy, Among Others
New York, NY – April 20, 2022 – Park Avenue Armory continues its 2022 Recital Series on Tuesday evening, May 17, 2022, at 7:30pm for single performance by specialists in the music of France’s Grand Siècle, Ensemble Correspondances, in the intimate setting of the Armory’s Veterans Room. A major force in the 17th-century French repertory and in period compositions of the early music canon, Ensemble Correspondances brings a collective of singers and instrumentalists together under the direction of harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé perform their program titled Plaisirs du Louvre, Music for the Chamber of Louis XIII.
During the reign of Louis the Just, king of France from 1610 to 1643, the Louvre serves as the epicenter of power, displayed in an elaborate set of ceremonies for daily royal activities and accompanied by specific music from the king’s personal orchestra. The country’s elite composers such as Moulinié, Guédron, Couperin, and de Chancy were enlisted to create these airs de cour and ballets royal; the most famous composer among them, Antoine Boësset, transformed the Renaissance polyphonic air into a more intimate work for the royal setting. This program features a rich array of these delicately chiseled miniature works, harkening back to the atmosphere of a royal chambre or appartement in the intricate interior of the Veterans Room.
Full repertoire follows:
Louis Constantin: Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit, “Chasseurs I & II”
Antoine Boësset: Ballet des Nymphes bocagères de la forêt sacrée, “Reine que je sers et que je connais” (Concert de Diane et ses nymphes)
Antoine Boësset: Ballet des Nymphes bocagères de la forêt sacrée,“Dialogue de la troupe d’Orphée et des Hamadryades”
François de Chancy: Allemande en Ut à 5
Pierre Guédron: “Cesse mortel d’importuner” (Juste mespris de saincte Agnez)
Pierre Guédron: “Quels tourments rigoureux” (Le Purgatoire)
Étienne Moulinié: “Il sort de nos corps emplumés” (Concert de différents oyseaux)
J. Champion de Chambonnières: L’Entretien des Dieux
Antoine Boësset: “Ne vante point flambeau des Cieux”
Étienne Moulinié: Première fantaisie à 4
Étienne Moulinié: “Rompez les charmes du sommeil” (Air de la Ridicule)
–Intermission–
M. de la Voye: Prélude
Antoine Boësset: “Noires forêts, demeures sombres”
Louis Constantin: Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit, “Danses du Sabbat”
Antoine Boësset: “Quelle merveilleuse aventure”
Antoine Boësset: “Je suis l’adorable Équité” (Récit de la Félicité, la Justice, et les Amours)
Antoine Boësset: “Ce roi vainqueur de nos malheurs” (Pour le Roy)
Louis Couperin: Fantaisie pour les violes
Antoine Boësset: “Que prétendez-vous, mes désirs”
Louis Constantin: Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit, “Folia” (maggiore et minore)
Antoine Boësset: “Segua chi vuol iniquo Amore”
Louis Couperin: La Piémontoise
Antoine Boësset: “Conseille-moi mon coeur” (David disgrâcié)
François de Chancy: “Rares fleurs, vivantes peintures”
TICKETING
Tickets at $55 (plus fees) may be purchased online armoryonpark.org or by calling the Box Office at (212) 933-5812, Monday through Friday from 10:00am to 6:00pm.
HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS
Health and safety while at the Armory are of the utmost importance. The Armory requires that all ticket holders be fully vaccinated. Upon entry to the building, ticket holders will be required to show proof of full vaccination (the New York State Excelsior Pass or a hard copy or photo of your vaccination card), as well as a government-issued photo ID. The Armory will continue to follow all city, state, and CDC guidelines in regard to COVID-19 safety protocols.
All patrons and staff are required to wear masks while inside the Armory.
SPONSORSHIP
Citi and Bloomberg Philanthropies are the Armory’s 2022 Season Sponsors.
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council.
The Recital Series is supported in part by The Reed Foundation and the Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
ABOUT ENSEMBLE CORRESPONDANCES
Founded in Lyon in 2009, Ensemble Correspondances brings together under the direction of the harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé a group of singers and instrumentalists, all of whom are specialists in the music of the Grand Siècle. In a few short years of existence, Correspondances has become a benchmark ensemble in the seventeenth-century French repertory. Placing itself under the auspices of Baudelaire’s notion of correspondences between the arts, it performs music whose sonorities can still directly touch today’s listeners while presenting staged productions of rarer and more original forms such as the oratorio and the ballet de cour. The ensemble’s twin commitments to breathing new life into already well-known composers and restoring the image of figures less familiar today but celebrated and frequently performed in their own time have already yielded 16 critically acclaimed recordings.
Ensemble Correspondances is in residence at the Théâtre de Caen. It is Associate Ensemble at the Louvre Museum and at the Théâtre de l’Aquarium at the Cartoucherie de Vincennes. The ensemble s supported by the Ministère de la Culture – DRAC Normandie, the Région Normandie, the Ville and the théâtre de Caen. Fondation Société Générale C’est vous l’avenir is a major patron of Ensemble Correspondances. The ensemble receives assistance from the Fondation Correspondances, under the aegis of the Fondation Bullukian, a group of music lovers who give active support to research into and publication and performance of the music of the 17th century. It also receives regular support from the Institut Français, Odia Normandie, and Centre National de la Musique for its concerts and recordings. Ensemble Correspondances is member of: Arviva – Arts vivants, Arts durables; FEVIS; Profedim; and the European Early Music Network.
ABOUT SÉBASTIEN DAUCÉ
Organist and harpsichordist Sébastien Daucé aims to promote the little known, yet abundant 17th-century repertoire. At the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Lyon he studied harpsichord and bass continuo with Françoise Lengellé and Yves Rechsteiner. Its exploration of a little-performed and often unpublished repertory has led, with the support of the harmonia mundi label, to a discography of thirteen recordings that have attracted considerable press attention and have received such distinctions as the Diapason d’Or of the Year, ffff de Télérama, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, ‘Choc’ of the Year in Classica, German Record Critics Award and IRR Outstanding. Alongside his activities as a performing musician, Sébastien Daucé edits the music that makes up the ensemble’s repertory, going so far as to recompose complete pieces, when necessary, as in Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit. He has taught at the Pôle Supérieur de Paris since 2012. In 2018 he was Guest Artistic Director of the London Festival of Baroque Music.
ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY’S RECITAL SERIES
Park Avenue Armory presents more intimate performances and programs in its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe in an intimate salon setting. The series has held the debuts of many world-class artists, including: the North American recital debuts of pianist Igor Levit, soprano Sabine Devieilhe, tenor Ilker Arcayürek, baritones Benjamin Appl and Roderick Williams, clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, and cellist István Várdai; the US Recital debuts of sopranos Barbara Hannigan and Anna Lucia Richter and baritone Thomas Oliemans; and the New York debut of pianist Severin von Eckardstein and the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam.
The Recital Series has programmed the world premieres of Roger Reynolds’ FLiGHT performed by the JACK Quartet and Michael Hersch’s “…das Rückgrat berstend” performed by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Jay Campbell. Actor Charlotte Rampling and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton gave the US premiere of The Night Dances on the series in 2015, which brought together Benjamin Britten’s suites for solo cello and poetry by Sylvia Plath; Wieder-Atherton returned to the Armory in 2017 for the North American premiere of Little Girl Blue, a program that reimagined the music of Nina Simone. New York premieres include: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In the Light of Air and Shades of Silence performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble; Dai Kujikura’s Minina, John Zorn’s Baudelaires, and a new arrangement of Messiaen’s Chants de terre et de ciel, also performed by ICE; Michael Gordon’s Rushes performed by the Rushes Ensemble; Michael Harrison’s Just Constellations performed by Roomful of Teeth; David Lang’s depart, Gabriel Jackson’s Our flags are wafting in hope and grief and Rigwreck, Kile Smith’s “Conversation in the Mountains” from Where Flames A Word, Louis Andriessen’s Ahania Weeping, Suzanne Giraud’s Johannisbaum, David Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet, Benjamin CS Boyle’s Empire of Crystal, and Ted Hearne’s Animals (commissioned by Park Avenue Armory), all performed by The Crossing under conductor Donald Nally; and John Zorn’s Jumalatteret sung by soprano Barbara Hannigan with pianist Stephen Gosling.
Additional notable programs include performances by: baritone Christian Gerhaher with pianist Gerold Huber; the Flux Quartet;; tenor Ian Bostridge with pianist Wenwen Du; pianist David Fray; soprano Lisette Oropesa with pianist John Churchwell countertenor Andreas Scholl with harpsichordist Tamar Halperin; soprano Kate Royal with pianist Joseph Middleton; pipa player Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet; tenor Lawrence Brownlee with pianists Myra Huang and Jason Moran; mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard with pianist Ted Sperling; soprano Nadine Sierra with pianist Brian Wagorn; Rosa Feola with pianist Iain Burnside; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; tenor Paul Appleby with pianist Conor Hanick; baritone Will Liverman with pianist Myra Huang; and mezzo soprano Jamie Barton with pianist and composer Jake Heggie.
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Media Contacts
For more information or to request images, please contact:
Tom Trayer, tomtrayer@armoryonpark.org or (212) 933-5801
Allison Abbott, aabbott@armoryonpark.org or (212) 933-5834
