CD Baroque Christmases in Versailles

There is no doubt that in the Ancien Régime, Christmas was a religious and musical holiday! For this recording, popular music and virtuoso talents come together, masterful organ and angelic voices respond to each other, divine promise and earthly jubilation mingle, to offer us a royal Christmas!

Christmas time would make sacred music shined forth in monarchical France.

The organists had free rein to improvise on the popular Nativity songs, which had been known to all the faithful for centuries, and amateurs would swarm to churches throughout Paris to hear the virtuoso works of these masters! Here, finally gathered together, are the most famous organ pieces of Daquin, Corette, Dandrieu and Balbastre along with the melodies that inspired them, played by the skilled fingers of Gaétan Jarry at the Grand Orgue of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, accompanied by the children’s choir (the Pages) of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, just as the children used to at the Chapel during the reign of Louis XIV!

Recorded from June 23th to 25th 2019 in the Royal Chapel of Versailles.

Booklet in French, English, German
Duration: 70’40

Gaétan Jarry, organ and conductor
Les Pages du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (Olivier Schneebeli, conductor)
Claude Balbastre, Michel Corrette, Jean-François Dandrieu, Pierre Dandrieu, Louis-Claude Daquin