Holy Week was a time for profound reflection andsacred ritual at the court of Louis XIV. Le ConcertSpirituel, in its 30th anniversary year, evokesthe intense atmosphere of musical worship inthe era of the Sun King with a programme builtaround François Couperin’s three Leçons de Ténèbres, written in 1714 for the Abbaye Royalede Longchamp near Paris, and Marc-AntoineCharpentier’s Tenebrae Responses.

The concertalso offers a rare chance to hear part of theRequiem setting by Louis Chein, a chaplain andchorister at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and aninstrumental version of Lochon’s Marian motetTuere nos mortales.