CD Release – The Masters of the Motet

The latest opus of the Les Arts Florissants’ collection on the Harmonia Mundi label, the CD The Masters of the motet proposes hearing Paul Agnew and the choir of Les Arts Florissants in a programme which puts the spotlight on two composers too seldom played in music, which offers generous solo parts for the ensemble’s singers.

"Les Arts Florissants make Brossard and Bouteiller sparkle... We are struck by the richness and the beauty of the writing, enabling the singers to express a large spectrum of feelings.” (ResMusica, on the occasion of the series of concerts leading up to the recording in 2016).

Listen to a track

And to accompany your listening, the booklet offers a short fictional story imagined by Erik Orsenna of l’Académie française, with the complicity of Paul Agnew, on the meeting between Brossard and Bouteiller which notably enables the latter’s Messe pour les Défunts to come down to us….

“Yes in Châlons-sur-Marne, let us recall the merry racket which was going on that evening in the main hall of the Huntsman’s Inn. In a corner, two men were smiling at each other. Who would have guessed that instead of talking about game, women or animals, they were discussing music?”

Extract from "What’s left of Music?", an original story imagined by Erik Orsenna for the CD booklet.