The Concert Spirituel (English: Spiritual Concert ) was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts with the same name occurred in multiple places including Paris, Vienna , London and more. The series was founded to provide entertainment during the Easter fortnight and on religious holidays when the other spectacles (the Paris Opera , Comédie-Française , and Comédie-Italienne ) were closed. The programs featured a mixture of sacred choral works and virtuosic instrumental pieces, and for many years took place in a magnificently-decorated Salle des Cent Suisses (Hall of the Hundred Swiss Guards) in the Tuileries Palace . They started at six o’clock in the evening and were primarily attended by well-to-do bourgeois, the lower aristocracy, and foreign visitors. In 1784 the concerts were moved to the stage area of the Salle des Machines (an enormous former opera house in the Tuileries), and in 1790, when the royal family was confined in the Tuileries, they took place in a Paris theater.
15-466: The first concert took place on March 18, 1725. Two of Delalande 's motets and Corelli 's Christmas Concerto were performed. The series was managed by a succession of director-entrepreneurs, who paid a license fee in order to obtain a royal privilege which granted them an exception to the monopoly on public performance of music held by the Paris Opera (Académie Royale de Musique). The first director
30-472: A contest between composers, giving them the same sacred text and time to compose the musical setting. He alone was the judge. Delalande was one of four winners assigned to compose sacred music for each quarter of the year (the other composers being Coupillet , Collasse and Minoret ). Delalande's was the most important quarter of the year because of the Christmas holiday. Later he had full responsibility for
45-759: The Napoleonic era concerts were occasionally held in Paris under the title "Concerts Spirituel", particularly after 1805 as religious feeling revived in France. During the Restoration (1814–1830), the Théâtre-Italien and Académie Royale de Musique gave 6 to 9 Concerts Spirituels per year, but only during Holy Week . They became a regular feature at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire shortly after it
60-559: The church music for the complete year. At his death, since he left no mass of his own, the 1656 requiem of the Dukes of Lorraine by Charles d'Helfer was sung. Delalande left many versions of his works. His earlier versions show adherence to French Baroque style, but the later revisions incorporate more Italian melismatic lines and greater attention to polyphonic counterpoint . Also, at least four collections of his works exist, each displaying different looks at composer's work as viewed by
75-685: The concerts remained profitable, Dauvergne abandoned the concerts. As a result, the Académie replaced him with Pierre Gaviniès , Simon Le Duc and François Joseph Gossec (1773–1777). From 1777 the Concert Spirituel was directed by Joseph Legros , its last and most brilliant director. Legros, a star singer at the Paris Opéra , managed the concerts until they came to an end in 1790 with the French Revolution . He attracted
90-478: The eighteenth century on period instruments. Michel Richard Delalande Michel Richard Delalande [de Lalande] ( French pronunciation: [dəlalɑ̃d] ; 15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV . He was one of the most important composers of grands motets . He also wrote orchestral suites known as Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy and ballets. Born in Paris, he
105-502: The license fee, but in general this was a period of stagnation. Two new entrepreneurs, Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer , and Gabriel Capperan (1748–1762), purchased the privilege, redecorated the concert hall, augmented the size of the orchestra and chorus, and set out to make their fortunes. They continued to perform new and existing French works, but also presented the most famous Italian singers. Beginning in 1755, oratorios with French texts were introduced and became popular. The series
120-572: The most famous performers in Europe and renewed the repertoire, eliminating 17th-century grand motets and replacing them with works by Johann Christian Bach , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (the Paris Symphony in 1778), Joseph Haydn , whose symphonies were on nearly every program, and others. Legros even commissioned new works for the series, such as Mozart's Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297 . The final concert took place on 13 May 1790. During
135-702: The people who assembled each collection. Scholarship of Delalande's work was for many years hindered because of inconsistencies in the spelling of his last name: de Lalande, Lalande, la Lande, de la Lande, and others. The family wrote the name as 'Delalande'. Finally, in 2006 the definitive "Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726)" by noted British musicologist Lionel Sawkins came out which runs to 752 pages containing over 3,000 music examples and details of performing requirements and of all source materials, as well as with comprehensive indexes and thematic locators. Vocal Instrumental Delalande
150-407: Was Anne Danican Philidor , brother of the composer and chess master François-André Danican Philidor . Philidor went bankrupt within two years. His successors, Pierre Simart and Jean-Joseph Mouret (1728–1733), expanded the operation with a series of "French Concerts," but met the same unhappy fate. These early concerts helped to establish the career of violinist Jean-Marie Leclair. Because no one
165-547: Was a contemporary of Jean-Baptiste Lully and François Couperin . Delalande taught music to the daughters of Louis XIV , and was director of the French chapel royal from 1714 until his death at Versailles in 1726. Delalande was arguably the greatest composer of French grands motets , a type of sacred work that was more pleasing to Louis XIV because of its pomp and grandeur, written for soloists, choir and comparatively large orchestra. According to tradition, Louis XIV organized
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#1732765176204180-537: Was an expert organist and harpsichordist, and yet has left not a single note of keyboard music. Herv%C3%A9 Niquet Hervé Niquet (born 28 October 1957) is a French conductor, harpsichordist, tenor , and the director of Le Concert Spirituel , specializing in French Baroque music . Born on 28 October 1957, Hervé Niquet was raised at Abbeville in the department of Somme . He studied harpsichord, composition, conducting, and opera singing. In 1980, he
195-537: Was founded in 1828, and remained so for most of the nineteenth century. They were frequently performed as benefit performances featuring notable soloists; for example, Charles-Valentin Alkan led one of the three Concerts Spirituels in 1828. In 1988 Hervé Niquet , a specialist in Baroque music, founded an early-music ensemble called Le Concert Spirituel in order to perform the repertoire of French music composed in
210-437: Was soon profitable. In 1762 a well-connected royal functionary, Antoine Dauvergne , forced Royer's widow out of the operation she had run since her husband's death in 1755. Dauvergne and various associates managed the concerts until 1773. The interest of the public was excited by adding a motet competition and by expanding the presentation of instrumental virtuosi beyond violinists to include masters of wind instruments. Although
225-474: Was willing to take their place, the series was administered by the Académie Royale de Musique for the next fourteen years (1734–1748). During this period, the works of French composers (particularly Michel-Richard Delalande , Mouret, and Jean-Joseph de Mondonville ) were favored, although Italian works were never entirely absent. The series was finally profitable because the Académie did not have to pay
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