LECONS DE TENEBRES

If the Leçons de Ténèbres by Charpentier, Couperin and Lalande are very well known, rare are the musicians who dare confront those by Michel Lambert because of the mystery that surrounds the manuscript's sources. For his first harmonia mundi collaboration as soloist, Marc Mauillon reveals the striking beauty of Lambert's music, using his own scholarly reconstruction of these solemn works.

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REVIEW:

The unwavering, honest quality of Mauillon’s reedy voice – so suited to earlier music – works perfectly in this context, creating the sense of a cantus firmus on which the instrumentalists elaborate. Might this release have laid down a new benchmark in the revival of 17th-century performing practices? I think so.

– Gramophone