Since 1987 Le Concert Spirituel has become one of the leading exponents in the performance of baroque music – notably of French repertoire – on period instruments, throughout Europe and across the world. As an ensemble associated with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, it works closely with the Centre’s musicologists, frequently appearing at both the Chapelle Royale and the Opéra Royal at the Château of Versailles.
Le Concert Spirituel has distinguished itself in the most prestigious festivals of France and other countries: the Festival d’Ambronay, Villa Medici in Rome, Holland Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music in London, Bremen Musikfest, Boston Early Music Festival, Festival Internacional de Música da Póvoa de Varzim, Festival d’Art Sacré in Paris, French Festivals in Sablé, Saint Michel en Thiérache and La Chaise-Dieu and also the Fes Festival of Sacred World Music in Morocco.
It is also invited to perform in leading concert halls in many different countries, among which can be numbered the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Bruxelles, Victoria Hall in Genève, Auditorium de Lyon, Opéra-Comique, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Châtelet and Cité de la Musique all in Paris, the Palais des Papes in Avignon, Arsenal at Metz and Library of Congress in Washington.
Le Concert Spirituel is a notable contributor to the continuing revival of the French Baroque operatic tradition through its recordings on Glossa: Boismortier’s Daphnis et Chloé, Destouches’ Callirhoé, Marais’ Sémélé and Lully’s Proserpine are good examples. In parallel to these operas Le Concert Spirituel has been exploring the sacred repertoire of the French early Baroque, especially that of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel are also responsible for significant interpretations of music by Purcell and Handel (the ensemble played the music of Handel to an audience estimated at around 10,000 in the Parque del Retiro in Madrid and the recording of the Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks was the recipient of the Edison Prize in 2004).
Since January 2006, Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet have been in residence at the Opéra de Montpellier.
* * *
After training as a harpsichordist, organist, pianist, singer, composer, choirmaster and conductor, Hervé Niquet founded Le Concert Spirituel in 1987 and since its conception explores rare Baroque works, favouring the French musical tradition to which he devotes the greater part of his energy. Passion doesn’t necessarily imply exclusion, as Handel, Lorenzani, Purcell, Bach, Haydn, Gossec, Rigel and Mozart also appear frequently in the programmes of Le Concert Spirituel. Niquet applied the same level of curiosity and willingness to reread repertoire when he created La Nouvele Sinfonie in Montreal in 2002, a Canadian orchestra whose vocation is to promote French Baroque music in North America. The following year, Hervé Niquet was made conductor and artistic director of the symphonic orchestra Beethoven Académie in Antwerp. In 2006, he created a regional symphonic choir in Languedoc Roussillon. He has still found time to record the occasional solo keyboard CD, such as discs devoted to the music of François d’Agincour.
Hervé Niquet also remains committed to 19th century music and is regularly invited to conduct choruses and orchestras in the operatic and symphonic works of Lesueur, Gounod, Chabrier, Offenbach, Berlioz, Franck, Dukas, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Since 2008, Hervé Niquet has been associate conductor and delegate to artistic relations of the Palazzetto Bru-Zane in Venice (Centre de musique romantique française).
Long before the advent of surtitles in the opera house, success across Europe of new dramatic works depended on their plots being understood by local audiences. Such was the case for the German singspiel that is Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and when it was introduced to in Paris in 1801 it was adapted and re-titled Les Mystères d’Isis: this is the opera which Le Concert Spirituel and the Flemish Radio Choir have recorded for this new release on Glossa (Diego Fasolis conducting the ensembles in place of the then indisposed Hervé Niquet). [read more...]
The collective artistic endeavours of Glossa have recently been recognized with an award of Label of the Year for 2014 by a Europe-wide panel of classical music media organizations – print and online magazines, as well as radio broadcasters – who form the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) jury. This is to be presented at the Award Ceremony and Gala Concert in the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw in April 2014. The Glossa adventure began back in 1992, led by two pioneering Spanish instrumentalists – brothers José Miguel Moreno and Emilio Moreno – who set about creating a treasure trove of recorded excellence, notably in the ever-developing field of “early music”. To this day, the label remains focused on its artists, supporting their musical journeys and inclinations, with the artistic direction entrusted to Carlos Céster. With a small team around him Céster operates from San Lorenzo de El Escorial, surrounded by the abundant natural riches of the mountains around Madrid and with an austere Monasterio in sight to ever encourage him in the rigour of his work. [read more...]
Over the last 25 years Hervé Niquet has emerged as one of the most ebullient defenders and inspired interpreters of French music from the Baroque to the early 20th century, and never one to be shy of approaching composers and music disdained by others. With Le Concert Spirituel – which he founded in 1987 – there has been a constant stream of performances and recordings devoted to the music of the likes of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier and Pierre Bouteiller (and of Baroque composers from other countries besides), whilst Niquet’s musical vision has also encompassed unjustly neglected operatic compositions in the tragédie lyrique genre. Charles-Simon Catel’s Sémiramis – first performed in 1802 – is one of those neglected tragédies lyriques, now recorded and released, and Glossa is also issuing a two-disc survey celebrating a quarter century of music-making from Le Concert Spirituel, covering enticing selections of choral, orchestral and dramatic works, as well as some personally-chosen instrumental bonbons (which include Hervé Niquet as harpsichordist). [read more...]
It is not only discerning music lovers around the globe who are giving a warm welcome to the recordings which are being published on Glossa; critical approval in the specialist media has been joining in as well. One example of the latter is the newly-instigated International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) which, for its inaugural 2011 edition, has chosen no less than nine of Glossa’s recent releases in its initial nominations. [read more...]
Hervé Niquet is far less interested in being known as a Baroque music specialist than for his passionate interest in all of French music, especially its vocal and lyrical compositions and nowadays he is as liable to be found directing a symphony orchestra as his own period instrument ensemble Le Concert Spirituel. It may come, for some, as a surprise to find Niquet teaming up with the Brussels Philharmonic to record Debussy but this future release will mark the inauguration of a new adventure for Niquet and Glossa focusing on the music associated with the Prix de Rome competition which drew in scores of leading French composers all the way from 1803 through 1968. [read more...]
For its first DVD release Glossa has chosen a veritable spectacular, combining the strong creative ideas represented by one of its established artistic teams in Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel, the fabulously funny and hugely-successful French comedy duo of Shirley and Dino (Corinne and Gilles Benizio in real life), a film director in Olivier Simonnet with proven experience in the music of the Baroque and a masterpiece of a dramatick operatic score in Henry Purcell’s King Arthur. [read more...]