CONSTANTIJN HUYGENS (1596-1687)
Pathodia sacra et profana
Paris, 1647

01 Sospiro della sua donna
02 Amor secreto
03 Dilataverunt super me – Psalm 34 (35), versets 21-22
04 Ne crains point le serein

05 Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (c1601/2 -1672): Jeunes Zéphirs, with the doubles by Jean-Henri d’Anglebert (instr.)

06 Avertisti faciem – Psalm 29 (30), versets 8-9, 11
07 Que ferons nous, mon pauvre coeur ?
08 In quo corriget – Psalm 118 (119), versets 9-10
09 Laetatus sum – Psalm 121 (122), versets 1-2-(3)
10 Già ti chiesi un sospir
11 Domine Deus meus – Psalm 29 (30), versets (3)-4-5

12 Constantijn Huygens: Allemande for viola da gamba (instr.)

13 A dispetto de’ venti
14 Che rumore sento fuore?
15 Va, donna ingrata
16 Quare tristis es – Psalm 41 (42) versets 6-(7)
17 Vous me l’aviez bien dit
18 De profundis – Psalm 129 (130) versets 1-3, 5

19 Luigi Rossi (c1597/8 -1653): Passacaille in A minor (instr.)

20 Le Réveil de Calliste
21 Tu te trompes, Phillis
22 Multi dicunt animae meae – Psalm 3, versets 3-4
23 Caccia amorosa
24 Graves tesmoins de mes délices
25 Con la candida man
26 Quoy Clorinde tu pars ?

27 Johann Jacob Froberger (1616 -1667): Toccata V in E minor (instr.)

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About this album

The surviving musical edition of Dutch Golden Age “Renaissance Man”, Constantijn Huygens receives a fresh new recording – issued on Glossa – from a singer who has become a connoisseur of vocal music from the seventeenth century: Cyril Auvity.

The remarkable Huygens, alive for much of that century, was a poet, composer and musician whose “day job” was as a diplomat working for the Princes of Orange and who was an assiduous correspondent with leading thinkers such as Descartes, Rubens and Corneille. Huygens’ Pathodia sacra et profana encompasses a collection of songs in Italian, French and Latin whose simplicity belies the complexity of the emotions carried within them.

Those emotions are admirably conveyed by a singer whose inquisitive musical intellect takes him down less frequented paths (such as two previously issued Charpentier albums on Glossa), and whose voice is rich and coloured and employed with a mastery of line. Singer and instrumentalists on this new recording have decided to record all the French airs from the Pathodia as well as an extensive selection of the Italian arie and Latin-texted Psalm settings.

Reflecting the contemporary performances of such works by wealthy amateurs in the Dutch Republic, Myriam Rignol plays viola da gamba whilst Marie van Rhijn plays harpsichord, positive organ and the enigmatic Lautenwerck (a lute-harpsichord). Each of these instruments is additionally given an opportunity to be heard in solo music from Huygens’ time.