Michel-Richard Delalande / Tenebrae Lessons

Michel-Richard Delalande: Lessons from Darkness Sophie Karthäuser, soprano Ensemble Correspondances Sébastien Daucé, conductor It was as a specialist in female voices that Delalande composed these lessons, which were a real event during Holy Week. Famous for his Symphonies for the King’s Soups — three chef’s hats in Philidor’s catalog, the Michelin star of Versailles music in the Baroque era — composer Michel Richard Delalande nonetheless prized spiritual nourishment. If, from 1683 until the end of the reign of Louis XIV, he made the motet à la française the main course of official religious services, he intended rarer and more frugal recipes for posh Parisian convents, in particular that of the Ladies of the Assumption, near the Tuileries. For these Augustinian nuns, he concocted three services of lessons in Darkness, suitable for sustaining pious souls during Lent, just before Easter. Begun at the end of the day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of