Le Coucher Du Roi: Music For Louis Xiv's Chamber

Night is falling. In this twilight of the reign of Louis XIV and at the end of his Grand Coucher, the king is at last free from protocol. He then orders the musicians of the King’s Chamber, to come to him; they are the most excellent in the kingdom. These “Petits Concerts” which were held in the evening before His Majesty enabled the king to hear his preferred repertoire from all that he had loved and even danced to. Here is the “Sleep scene” from Lully’s Atys, the Sombres Deserts by Lambert, the Mutine by Visee, the Grande Piece Royale by Lalande, A Gigue by Marais, La Plainte by La Barre… Thibaut Roussel has gathered around him the finest interpreters of the French baroque repertoire, to give us, as if in a walking dream, the intimate music of this Coucher du Roi. “Let the night last,” sings Le Camus, right up until Couperin’s Land of Dodo.