An interesting sign of the recent vitality of the early music recording scene has been the tendency toward compilations that are larger than the individual recordings they excerpt. Louis XIV: Music for the Sun King at Versailles is a sumptuous three-CD box containing selections from a whole parade of Harmonia Mundi releases dating back to 1995, most of them just single discs. Thirty works (or parts of works) by 13 composers have been artfully assembled into three categories (one per disc): "Musique à la chapelle du Roy" ...
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An interesting sign of the recent vitality of the early music recording scene has been the tendency toward compilations that are larger than the individual recordings they excerpt. Louis XIV: Music for the Sun King at Versailles is a sumptuous three-CD box containing selections from a whole parade of Harmonia Mundi releases dating back to 1995, most of them just single discs. Thirty works (or parts of works) by 13 composers have been artfully assembled into three categories (one per disc): "Musique à la chapelle du Roy" (Music for the King's Chapel), "Les récréations de sa Majesté" (His Majesty's Recreations), and "Une soirée à l'opéra du Roy" (An Evening at the Royal Opera). A lengthy but highly informative booklet essay connects all of these in an excellent sketch of the musical culture at glittering Versailles, the seat of the aggressively and awesomely centralized power of the French throne. Louis XIV, we learn, was well educated musically and took an active part in shaping the musical life of the...
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