22. Coffee Concert

22. Coffee Concert

French cantatas from the 18th century are -unlike their German counterparts from the same period- profane works that one could consider musical short stories. Composed for one or more voices accompanied by a basso continuo, we can consider them real chamber operas. This program brings cantatas for one voice written by a comparatively unknown French composer who however was a master in this genre during the Age of Enlightenment : Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, alongside one trio sonata by the genius female composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, known for having played for king Louis XIV at the age of five. In this concert high tenor, Reinoud Van Mechelen, is accompanied by flute, violin, gamba and harpsichord singing three secular cantatas written for Madame Maintenon, the mistress of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Indeed Clérambault was given the role of organising concerts to take place in her apartments. It is perhaps apposite that the Jealousy Cantata should be the most fiery and exciting of the three. Jacquet de la Guerre was the favourite of a rival mistress, Marquise de Montespan, who was eventually deposed by Madame Maintenon, bring an end to de la Guerre's Versailles career. Instead she ran her own successful series of concerts from her home. Clérambault also had a back-up, being organist at both Saint Suplice and Saint Cyr.