Les Arts Florissans

Description

Charpentier was the equal of Lully and Lalande for the exceptional quality of his music. He created works of infinite beauty for the Duchess of Guise, which Louis XIV particularly admired, including the musical idyll Les Arts Florissans (1685). Gaétan Jarry and his young musicians bring a vibrant life to this allegory of the artistic golden age of the "greatest King in the World," who had just established his Court at Versailles and embodied both Apollo and the Sun King. The work presented here is extended by excerpts from the Couronne de Fleurs as an epilogue connecting the Spring of Arts inspired by Louis to that of Nature, a rarely recorded opera!