INFO COVID-19: CLÉRAMBAULT: GRANDS MOTETS, initially scheduled for Tuesday July 7, 2020, is postponed to Thursday July 8, 2021

Nicolas Clérambault belongs to a generation between Couperin and Rameau and had a brilliant career covering the end of Louis XIV’s reign, the Régence and Louis XV’s auspicious first years.
Early on, he was acknowledged as an exceptionally talented organist, which led him to play at the Grands Augustins, then at Saint-Sulpice and more importantly at Saint-Cyr: in this prestigious institution governed by Madame de Maintenon, he became responsible for all musical activities. A major author of the first half of the 18^th century, he is famous above all for his superb French cantatas. He also signed many works of sacred music, including several Grand Motets, considered as musical treasures. In line with the grand Versailles tradition instituted by Lully and Lalande, these original scores mingle Italian influence and French theatricality. Republished by the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles and presented to the public in 1999, for the Grandes Journées Clérambault, they are performed again for the first time in twenty years and recorded. Olivier Schneebeli, at the head of the Pages et Chantres du CMBV, associated to the excellent Czech orchestra, Collegium Marianum, a faithful partner of the CMBV, conducts these motets continuing his exploration of a genre to which he has dedicated his career.