Music for a Young King
“Le coup de Majesté”

“Daring, inventiveness and high standards are three cardinal virtues that Vincent Dumestre and his musicians have under their skin” – Le Monde, Marie-Aude Roux

“Early-music group Le Poème Harmonique doesn’t spend nearly enough time in New York. We are defining nearly enough time as about every week. Minimum.” – Time Out New York, Olivia Giovetti

“Historical rigor combined with creative freedom, elegance and beautiful sound combined with poetic sensitivity and quivering lyricism. With humility as the key word.“ – Le Figaro, Christian Merlin

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A debut Victoria performance by one of the most celebrated and recorded Early Baroque ensembles in France. Royal and popular music from the early reign of Louis XIV, before Versailles.

Music for a Young King explores popular and royal music before Versailles, with excerpts from the very first operas given in France by Lully and Cavalli, “pieces de salon” (Marais, Moulinié), drinking songs and the popular tunes hummed throughout Paris, performed in succession on this lively and exhilarating musical journey. After exploring the 17^th century through the intimacy of courtly tunes, and more recently through the great royal panoramas of Lully and Delalande, the Poème Harmonique invites you to enter a living palace, the Louvre, at a time when popular music was omnipresent, and the nobility and the people sang in chorus, from the streets to the court.

Programme:

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Plainte de Vénus sur la mort d’Adonis

Michel-Richard de Lalande
Musette
Marche des Bergers
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Air sur les Stances du Cid
Etienne Moulinié
L’auzel que sul boyssou
Anonyme
Le bossu maumariée
Anonyme
Quand je menais les chevaux boire

Francesco Cavalli 
Sinfonia, L’Egisto
Sinfonia, Ercole amante

Marco Uccellini

Sinfonia A gran battaglia

Aria sopra la Bergamasca

Francesco Cavalli 

Dell’antro magico, Il Giasone
Luci mie, Xerse
Giovanni Battisa Buonamente  

Aria di Fiorenza
Francesco Cavalli 
E vuol dunque, from the opera Ercole amante
Piangete occhi dolenti, from the opera L’Egisto

Musicians:

Le Poème Harmonique

Anaïs Bertrand, alto
Vincent Dumestre, theorbo and artistic direction

Fiona-Émilie Poupard, Louise Ayrton, violins
Lucas Peres, Viola da gamba
Simon Guidicelli, doublebass
Camille Delaforge, harpsichord and organ

(Photo credit: Danza !)