Le Poème Harmonique, Ensemble Aedes & Vincent Dumestre - Lalande: Majesté (Collection Château de Versailles) (2018)

In 1683, Michel-Richard de Lalande entered the Chapelle Royale as a sous-maître after receiving the support of Louis XIV in a formidable recruitment competition. Still only twenty-five years old, the young composer was swiftly to become established as the King’s favourite and accede to the most coveted posts at court in a career spanning almost forty years. Above all, Louis included him in the consultations for the construction of the new Chapelle Royale, adjacent to Versailles Palace. As the arches gradually rose skywards, Lalande composed and revised his motets, which give expression to the then-peerless grandeur of the realm, while at the same time testifying to the chapel’s incomparable acoustics. His works – settings of psalms, hymns, the Te Deum – record the atmosphere at court in the liturgy, in times of both trouble and rejoicing. Following their earlier recording of Te Deum settings by Lully and Charpentier at the Chapelle Royale, Vincent Dumestre and Le Poème Harmonique have now returned to Versailles to tackle the music Lalande composed for that extraordinary place. Alongside the grands motets Deitatis majestatem and Ecce nunc benedicite, with their synthesis of royal pomp and the language of opera, they offer the deeply moving Miserere and the most grandiose Te Deum performed in the reign of Louis XIV, the Te Deum of the King himself.

Tracklist:
Deitatis Majestatem
01. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem
02. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: Hic enim misericors
03. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: Simphonie
04. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: O caro Christi vera
05. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: Te omnes angeli
06. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: O mentis jubilatio
07. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: Quam dulcis est
08. Deitatis Majestatem: Deitatis Majestatem: O bonitatis prodigium

Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8
09. Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8: Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8: Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum
10. Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8: Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8: In noctibus extollite
11. Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8: Ecce Nunc Benedicite, S.8: Benedicat te Dominus ex Sion

Te Deum, S.32
12. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum laudamus
13. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Te æternum Patrem
14. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Tibi omnes angeli
15. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
16. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Te gloriosus Apostolorum
17. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Te per orbem terrarum
18. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Tu rex gloriæ
19. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Tu, ad liberandum
20. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Tu, devicto mortis aculeo
21. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes
22. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Te ergo quæsumus
23. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Æterna fac cum sanctis
24. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Salvum fac populum tuum
25. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Et rege eos
26. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Per singulos dies benedicimus te
27. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Dignare, Domine
28. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: Miserere nostri
29. Te Deum, S.32: Te Deum, S.32: In te, Domine, speravi