Seasons > 2004-05 Season > Concerts >

Charpentier instrumental

Friday November 12, 2004, 8:00 pm

Sonata for 8, Concert for 4, noëls, etc.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier produced a considerable body of mostly vocal and religious work, in which he managed to combine the expressive suppleness of the Italian style and the delicacy of the French. His work does, though, include diverse instrumental compositions of great originality. Some of these were destined for the church, but the most important were composed while the composer was in the service of the Duchess of Guise. Among these we find the first sonata written in France, a masterpiece of sonorous refinement. As revealed in his instrumental music as well as in his vocal compositions, Charpentier was without doubt the most learned, the most diverse, and the most sensitive composer of seventeenth-century France.