Les Pages & Les Chantres, Centre De Musique Baroque De Versailles & Olivier Schneebeli - Nicolas Formé: le Voeu de Louis XIII (2007)

Olivier Schneebeli decided to compose a musical programme evoking the ceremonies and splendour of the official celebrations of the French king's Declaration. It centres on the Mass for double choir – Missa duobus choris – by Nicolas Formé (1567-1638), _sous-maître_ of the Royal Chapel. Louis XIII valued his works so highly that he had them kept in a special cupboard, to which he alone had the key! This sparkling programme, showing Baroque in all its splendour, presents a fine panorama of the musical aesthetics that prevailed in France during the first part of the seventeenth century.