Henry Desmarest (1661-1741)
Grands Motets, vol. II (Éditions du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles)

1-10 DE PROFUNDIS (psaume 129)

11-17 VENI CREATOR (hymne pour la fête de la Pentecôte)

18-26 CUM INVOCAREM (psaume 4)

Over the years, Hervé Niquet has become one of the undisputed masters of the French grand motet. Where others built their career on Bach’s cantatas, he chose to explore this noble and refined genre in great detail: Lully, Colasse, Charpentier, Campra, Lalande, Lorenzani, Boismortier, Rameau and, of course, Desmarest – all the composers who brought glory to the French court in the past and who contributed to the great reputation that the sacred art of the Grand Siècle enjoys to this day. Here we have Hervé Niquet with three unpublished grand motets by the still-young Henry Desmarest (he was born in 1661), only a few years after he stopped working as a page at the Royal Chapel. A favourite of the King, the Dauphin and the entire court, he was presented as the worthiest successor to Lully. However, Desmarest was one of the first cases in history of a ‘ghost writer’; between 1683 and 1693, he composed a significant number of works which were then signed by Nicolas Goupillet, one of Louis XIV’s vice-chapelmasters at Versailles, among them the three motets included on this CD.

These three grand motets are very fresh musical moments, where Desmarest highlighted his personal carte du tendre at leisure, as well as his taste for the learned and bracing counterpoint with its five subtly arranged parts. He played with the new vocal and instrumental possibilities created for the chapel built in 1682, with its colourful masses which contrast, sparkle and exalt the sound. These three works magnificently display the music in the new Versailles, almost as if they were veritable snapshots: elegant, refined, unfurling in space with gravity and majesty.

An additional issue of great interest is the ‘presentation in society’ of the cromorne, a mysterious instrument of the oboe family which was especially reconstructed for this occasion: listen to its powerful bass sound in the choir parts of the De profundis, the opening motet.