Lecons de Tenebres

Charpentier: Leçons de Ténèbres / Lesne, Piau, Honeyman, Harvey, Mellon, Composer: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Performer: Jean-Charles Ablitzer, Jacques Bona, Ian Honeyman, Agnès Mellon, Conductor: Gérard Lesne, Orchestra/Ensemble: Seminario Musicale, Number of Discs: 2. Leçons de ténèbres ("Lessons of Darkness") refers to the early-morning prayer services matins and lauds in Holy Week for the three days preceding Easter Sunday. Technically, the service should begin at midnight on those days; "tenebrae" therefore refers to the darkness during which the service is celebrated. This recording is an attempt partially to recreate the first nocturns of the evening services of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. For space reasons, it includes only one of the three psalms and antiphons for each service. Charpentier composed 54 lessons and responsories for Tenebrae. This recording constructs services using Charpentier's lessons and responsories H 95, 105, 121, 128, 130, 133, 136, 139, 140, and 144, adding three preludes to the Thursday service, H. 510, 521, and 528. Each service begins with a psalm, one plainchant, the other H 266, and each ends with a Miserere, which ended matins and began lauds; this recording uses a plainchant Miserere for Thursday and Charpentier's H 157 (incorrectly labeled on the recording as H 156) for Friday. This recording is the only available one for this music, so we are fortunate that the recording is of such high quality. Highly recommended.