Pierre ROBERT (c1622 - 1699)
Grands Motets sur le Cantique des Cantiques
Veniat dilectus meus [13:15]
Henry DU MONT (1610-1684)
Dum esset Rex [14:50]
Pierre ROBERT
Ego flos campi [22:03]
Nolite me considerare [13:48]
Marine Lafdal-Franc (dessus); Clément Debieuvre (haute-contre); Antonin Rondepierre (taille); David Witczak (basse-taille)
Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, Concerto Soave/Olivier Schneebeli
rec. 2020 at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, France
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as a stereo 16/44 download with pdf booklet from Outhere
CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES SPECTACLES CVS051 [63:56]
The motet was one of the main genres of sacred music of the Renaissance. In most countries it gradually went out of fashion during the 17th century. That was different in France. In the mid-17th century Henry du Mont and Pierre Robert laid the foundation of two kinds of motet: the petit motet, scored for solo voice(s) and basso continuo, sometimes with additional melody instruments, and the grand motet, a large-scale work for solo voices, choir and orchestra.
Both genres were closely connected to the court. Its purpose was not only religious, but also aimed at the glorification of the monarch, Louis XIV. That goes especially for the grand motet. Its large scoring in itself reflected the power of the Sun King, but that was supported by the choice of texts. These were mostly taken from the Book of Psalms, and as many Psalms are from the pen of King David, who is called in the Bible a "man after God's own heart", worldly monarchs liked to be compared to him. Louis XIV was no exception.
Whereas Henry du Mont has received quite some attention, which is reflected by the number of discs devoted to his oeuvre, including his grands motets, Pierre Robert has fared rather badly. Some years ago Olivier Schneebeli recorded four of his grands motets for the label K617, and in his notes in the booklet to the disc under review here, he points out that he was so intrigued by Robert's music that he decided to return to his music later. The result is this disc which includes three further grands motets.
Robert received his first musical education at the choirschool of Notre Dame in Paris. He acted as maître de chapelle at Senlis Cathedral (1648-1650) and in Chartres (1650-1652). In 1653 he returned to Paris, where he took the same position in Notre Dame. In 1663 Louis XIV appointed him as one of the sous-maîtres of the Chapelle royale. In 1672 he, along with Henry du Mont, one of the other sous-maîtres, was appointed as compositeur de la musique de la chapelle et de la chambre du roi. When he resigned in 1683 he was granted a considerable pension which he was able to enjoy until his death.
This was a token of the great appreciation of Louis XIV for Robert. Another was the printing of 24 of his grands motets in a luxurious edition by Christophe Ballard, 'sole printer of music to the king'. This collection contains probably about a third of Robert's total output, a part of which is lost. For his grands motets this publication is the only extant source. It is assumed the motets in the printed collection have been revised by Robert himself, in order to make them more suitable to the extended forces the Chapelle royale had at its disposal at the time of printing.
In his motets Robert fits in with tradition in that the texts are mostly from the Book of Psalms and are scored for double choir: a petit choeur which sings the largest part of the work and from which the soloists are taken, and a 5-part grand choeur which mostly reinforces the petit choeur. The instrumental ensemble is also in five parts, as was common in French music of the 17th century. Between the treble part (the violins) and the bass part which consist of viola da gamba, basse de violon and bassoon with harpsichord or organ, theorbo and serpent, the three inner parts are divided over haute-contre, taille and quinte de violon. In some motets two transverse flutes are added.
The motets on the present disc take a rather special position among Robert's motets, in that they are not settings of Psalms, but rather of texts from the Canticum Canticorum, known in English as Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. This is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing books of the Old Testament, and texts from this book have been set by numerous composers throughout history. Considering that this is basically the story of the love between a young man and a young woman, one may ask why such texts have been set as motets or at least as spiritual madrigals.
Since early times this love poetry has been given an allegorical interpretation. The young man represented Christ, the young woman the Church, or - especially in mystical circles - the soul of the believer. When the veneration of the Virgin Mary developed she took the role of the young woman. The fact that a number of texts entered the liturgy in the form of antiphons, indicates that the Church embraced the allegorical interpretation and considered the texts useful to strengthen the faith of the people. However, one cannot overlook a kind of dichotomy in the Church's attitude: various people who translated these texts into the vernacular, came into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities.
These grands motets were intended for performance at the Chapelle royale. Why were these texts chosen? That undoubtedly had much to do with the allegoral interpretation just mentioned. However, as everything in France, there was also a political side to it, as Thomas Leconte explains in his liner-notes. "Through the loving dialogue between the husband and wife, which forms the body of the biblical book, we in fact see an allegory for the virginal union between God and the mother of Christ, but also, and by extension, between the Christ figure of the King and France. An allegory of purity but also of exclusive union, the recurring image of the lily and its whiteness, associated with the symbol of the French monarchy, also recalls the importance of the Marian figure in Gallican France, since in 1638 Louis XIII had devoted the kingdom to the Virgin Mary as thanks for his victories and for the long-awaited birth of the dauphin Louis-Dieudonné, the future Louis XIV".
Whereas in Veniat dilectus meus Robert selected a number of verses from the 5th chapter, the two other motets bring together verses from several chapters. Because of the nature of the verses and the entire book, these motets are somewhat different in style from Robert's psalm settings. They have a more intimate character, which brings them close to the other motet genre, the petit motet. This is also due to the fact that solo voices take a prominent role here, which is the logical effect of the fact that this book, as Leconte pointed out, is dominated by dialogues. The role of the full choir is more modest here than in many other grands motets. Robert proves here to be a master in the setting of texts. No pump and circumstance here, but an expression of intimacy and tenderness.
That comes off well in these performances. The soloists have grasped the nature of these texts and Robert's settings rather well, and Schneebeli makes sure that the entire ensemble obeys their intimacy. It was a nice idea to include a piece by Robert's colleague Du Mont, whose motet Dum esset Rex is an equally expressive and subtle setting of verses from the Song of Songs.
That said, a couple of issues cannot be overlooked. First, I would have liked the soloists to reduce their vibrato. It is not that disturbing, and it is by far not as wide as in many opera recordings, but it is regrettable and compromises my appreciation of these performances. Second, the text is often hard to understand, especially in passages for petit choeur and grand choeur. I also need to mention that in the booklet the connection between the lyrics and the track-numbers in Ego flos campi is a bit of a mess. In the last section of that same motet we hear a duet of two sopranos, but the booklet mentions just one. It is also rather odd that a quality label as CVS produces a booklet with English translations of the liner-notes which are anything but faultless. A translator should understand what a symphonie is: "non-vocal music" (p. 10) is not exactly the correct description. The German translation has got it equally wrong, with "large orchestra".
Despite these issues, this disc deserves a whole-hearted welcome, as it eloquently demonstrates the quality of Robert's music, which deserves much more attention than it has received to date.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
