I. Benedic anima mea 
II. Cum invocarem

Concert donné le 13 octobre 2007, Chapelle royale du Château de Versailles

III. Laudate Dominum
IV. Regina Caeli

Concert du jeudi 2 décembre 2010, Chapelle royale du Château de Versailles

Les Pages et les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
The English Concert (I, II)
Olivier Schneebeli – director

The work of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles (CMBV) has, in recent years, led to an important expansion and improvement in the availability of reliable editions of the works produced by the grand motet composers. The grand motet, the most important sacred form in France from the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV until the time of the French Revolution, has seen relatively few performances in the United States in the last half century, but an increasing number of performances and recordings, centered mostly in Europe, are leading to increased awareness of the importance and beauty of these works. Grands motets survive from about eighty composers of those who contributed to the genre over its 130-year history, and of those composers about two dozen can be listed as the leading figures, including most of the composers who served in the Royal Chapel as did Nicolas Bernier.

Nicolas Bernier (1665-1734) distinguished himself as a composer, clavecinist, theoretician, and pedagogue. He held great respect as a musician, and became perhaps the most distinguished teacher identified with the second generation of grand motet composers. Bernier is thought to have received his training in his hometown of Mantes-la-Jolie, about thirty miles downstream from Paris, and at the cathedral of Evreux, after which he studied in Rome with Caldara. He then successively served as maitre de musique at the cathedral of Chartres (1694-98), and at Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois (1698-1704) before accepting a post at Ste Chapelle in Paris (1704-26), where he succeeded Marc-Antoine Charpentier. In 1723 he was appointed to serve the Royal Chapel at Versailles, a post he held for the rest of his life. Bernier may be viewed as a progressive force in French music, one that forged a good balance of French and Italian elements in his works. He probably became most famous for his secular cantatas and petits motets that became available in print, but eleven grands motets survive. At least nine others have been lost.

We do not know when Bernier composed his Benedic anima mea Domino. It is among the shortest of his grand motets; there are five numbered movements, one of which, the fourth, appears in the original manuscript in a different copying hand along with the notation "Recit adjoutte que l'on peut dire si l'on veut". --- questia.com

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I. Apollon Ou Le Dieu Du Jour - Première Cantate Ou Divertissement 
1-01 	Ouverture 	
1-02 	Apollon: "Pasible Nuit..." 	
1-03 	La Nuit 	
1-04 	Apollon: "Pourquoi Donc Chassez-vous..." 	
1-05 	Gravement, Apollon: "C'est Une Autre Minerve" 	
1-06 	Air, Gravement 	
1-07 	Menuet 	
1-08 	Rondeau Du Menuet 	
1-09 	Reprise Du Menuet 	
1-10 	Apollon: "Verrons-nous Pour Ses Jeux..." 	
1-11 	La Nuit: "La Scène Aura Son Temps..." 	
1-12 	Marche, Comus: "Honore Comus..." 	
1-13 	Comus: "Nos Jardins..." 	
1-14 	Choeur: "Unissons-Nous..." 	
1-15 	Sarabande, Gravement 	
1-16 	Rigaudon, Gayement 	
1-17 	Premier Passe-Pied - Second Passe Pied 	
1-18 	Musette 	
1-19 	Menuet De Musette 	
1-20 	reprise Du Choeur 	
II. L'Aurore - Seconde Cantate Ou Divertissement, Avec Symphonie 
1-21 	Ouverture 	
1-22 	Sommeil, Mercure: "Verse, Verse, Divin Sommeil..." 	
1-23 	Air Tendre, Mercure: "Dormez Oiseaux..." 	
1-24 	Choeur Des Muses: "Verse Divin Sommeil..." 	
1-25 	Prélude, Mercure: "Quelle Clarté Nouvelle..." 	
1-26 	L'Aurore & Mercure: "Que Des Honneurs..." 	
1-27 	1e Muse, 2e Muse & Mercure: Ah! Laissez Reposer..." 	
1-28 	L'Aurore & Mercure: "Que Des Honneurs..." 	
1-29 	Choeur: "Que Des Honneurs..." 	
1-30 	2e Muse: "Vous, Dont La Clarté..." 	
1-31 	Symphonie, Grand Choeur: "Que Des Honneurs..."

Bass – Alain Buet
Soprano – Anne-Marie Jacquin, Gaelle Mechaly, Hanna Bayodi-Hirt
Tenor – Robert Getchell
Violone – Patrick Cohën-Akenine
Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles

Nicolas Bernier: Les Nuits de Sceaux may not be quite as revelatory as other entries in a remarkable series of Renaissance and Baroque discs issued by France's Alpha label, but it has plenty to interest lovers of the French Baroque, and indeed anyone interested in what French music of the period might have sounded like beyond the court and the circles of the powerful Lully and Rameau. The Château of Sceaux was the part-time residence of the Duchess of Maine, the wife of Louis XIV's son and an enthusiastic patron of the arts and sciences. She mounted elaborate musical entertainments, most of which have been lost; Nicolas Bernier's large two-part cantata Les Nuits de Sceaux (1715) is the most substantial survivor.

The chief innovation of the Alpha series is the inclusion with each album of a reproduction of an artwork contemporary with the music on the disc. The happy choice here is a painting by François de Troy (1645-1730) of the Duchess herself, seated at a table next to an armillary sphere, receiving an astronomy lesson. The notes on the music and on the painting, although written by different people and apparently uncoordinated, complement each other wonderfully in portraying the sense of a world in which classical traditions were giving way to new rationalist ideas.

Bernier's 70-minute cantata, for four soloists and chamber orchestra, isn't quite on a level with Alpha's other recent rediscoveries. It lacks dramatic tension, consisting as it does of an elaborate paean of praise to the Duchess. The solo parts represent supernatural and metaphysical entities: the gods Apollo and Comus, Night, Dawn, and two Muses. The first part of the cantata lauds the Duchess, a known insomniac, for her knowledge of wonders of the night that are far finer than mundane sleep; the second part is a fairly flashy musical depiction of dawn. Each half opens with a French overture and is interspersed with instrumental dances. Though there are some terrific individual passages (Dawn's "Muses, still you sleep! Awaken at my voice!," No. 26, will get your attention and would even by a good choice for programming into the alarm-clock function of an mp3 player), the cantata doesn't sustain high interest over its entire length. Nevertheless, there's a certain party-all-night quality to it that's compelling, and the performance by Les Folies Françoises under Patrick Cohën-Akenine is state-of-the-art. The disc is definitely recommended for anyone interested in the history and music of the early eighteenth century. ---James Manheim, Rovi

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