STANCES DU CID

Airs de cour by Charpentier, Lambert and Morel
With instrumental interludes by F. Couperin

François Couperin (1668-1733)
01 Gravement (from Les Nations – La Piémontaise)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Stances du Cid
02 Percé jusques au fond du cœur
03 Que je sens de rudes combats
04 Père, maîtresse, honneur, amour

François Couperin
05 Passacaille (from Les Nations – L’Espagnole)
06 Air, gracieusement (from Les Nations – L’Espagnole)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
07 Auprès du feu l’on fait l’amour
08 Ruisseau qui nourrit dans ce bois
09 Non, non je ne l’aime plus

Jacques Morel (fl.c.1700-1749)
10 Tombeau de Mademoiselle...

Michel Lambert (1610-1696)
11 Ma bergère

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
12 Sans frayeur

François Couperin
13 Gravement (from Les Nations – L’Espagnole)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
14 Rendez-moi mes plaisirs
15 Amour, vous avez beau redoubler mes alarmes

François Couperin
16 Vivement et marqué (from Les Nations – La Piémontaise)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
17 Ah, qu’ils sont courts les beaux jours

François Couperin
18 Air (from Les Nations – La Piémontaise)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
19 Rentrez trop indiscrets soupirs
20 Retirons-nous, fuyons

Michel Lambert
21 Vos mépris chaque jour

François Couperin
22 Chaconne (from Les Nations – L’Impériale)

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About this CD

Cyril Auvity and L’Yriade make their debut on Glossa with a programme of airs de cour, Stances du Cid, ideally devised for the French haute-contre’s voice.

An extraordinary enthusiasm was held in seventeenth century France for the air de cour: a secular song genre popular across the social spectrum and singable, it seems, by everyone from cobblers to marquises... Even still, one distinctive voice which proved to be ideal for such airs was the haute-contre, a high tenor, sweet-sounding and clear; precisely the instrument possessed by Cyril Auvity, and it is no coincidence that the singer has, in recent years, been enjoying much success with his performances of the music of, among many others, Lully and Charpentier (the latter was a haute-contre himself).

Stances du Cid presents a selection of Charpentier’s secular vocal works, including the seldom-recorded stanzas (whose text is taken from Pierre Corneille’s tragicomedy Le Cid, which enjoyed great popularity for years after its 1637 première in Paris). The bucolic character of Charpentier’s other airs is complemented by a pair of airs de cour from an earlier master of the genre, Michael Lambert, and the expressive flavour of the music of ancien régime France is suitably enhanced on this recording also by instrumental interludes taken from François Couperin’s trio sonatas Les Nations, deftly handled by L’Yriade.

In his booklet essay Vincent Borel supplies a colourful defence, both of the potency of the air de cour and of its quintessential voice, the haute-contre.