Sun 12/14 : from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
For Advent 2025 the vocal ensemble LA PASTOURELLE (Zimmersheim) and the baroque vocal and instrumental ensemble LE BANQUET MUSICAL (Mulhouse) unite their voices and instruments for a concert of works by Marc-Antoine CHARPENTIER
In nativitatem Domini canticum H.414 takes the place of a vigil before Midnight Mass: in the manner of Charpentier's great sacred stories, the work recounts the story of the Nativity, where the Angel Gabriel announces to the Shepherds the great news of Christ's birth.
The Messe de Minuit H.9 is probably the second work to earn him worldwide fame, after his Te Deum H.146. It invites us to plunge back into a musical world where learned and popular traditions are not opposed, quite the contrary: all Charpentier's art and science are illustrated in this invitation of these Christmas carols within a so-called Midnight Mass. These melodies were familiar to all, peasants and gentlemen alike, recognizing them interwoven within a subtle counterpoint and renewed harmony. The pleasure of music is available to everyone: to recognize a familiar tune, or to grasp its extraordinary arrangement. The simplicity of the original hymns also lends the whole mass a candor and simplicity that is not without depth when one considers that it spoke universally at the time.
