Campra, Miserere and Requiem

Campra, Miserere
Campra, Messe de Requiem

Les Arts Florissants, W. Christie

André Campra (1660-1744), a Provençal composer and renowned choirmaster at the cathedrals of Toulon, Arles, Toulouse and Paris, wrote this Requiem mass probably shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1694, while he was director of the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame. Perhaps composed for a service in memory of the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur François de Harlay, in November 1695, this mass belongs to the period during which Campra’s religious music was reaching its full maturity, as traditional polyphony is treated with the same expressiveness as solo arias, which already announce the composer’s taste for opera – it was at this time that he began writing his opera-ballet L’Europe galante. The instrumental passages, far from being simple preludes, interludes or postludes, also bear witness to the marked sensitivity of the future assistant master of the Chapelle Royale of Versailles.