When the Messe à l’usage des Paroisses pour les Fêtes Solennelles [Solemn Mass for the Parishes] was published in 1690, François Couperin was just 21 years old, yet he had created a masterpiece of French organ music. Enhancing the tradition of alternating organ music with liturgical singing during the service, he created opulent pieces, each more inventive than the next, and on a truly royal scale. Accompanied by the Chant sur le Livre [Singing upon the Book] technique, magnificently improvised as was customary, and recreated here in all its splendour, this legendary mass is performed by the charismatic Olivier Latry on the Great Organ of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, which was inaugurated by Couperin the elder in 1710.
