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Donald Macleod recounts how Desmarets saves his career while living in exile, and back in Paris, Boismortier finally conquers the Paris opera with his opera Daphnis et Chloe.

Born a generation apart, Boismortier and Desmarets are perhaps lesser-known figures of the French baroque, but together they provide a fascinating picture of life and music-making in the reigns of the Sun King and Louis XV after him.

Boismortier’s success came from what seems to be a natural ability to keep his finger on the pulse: his music followed all the latest trends and styles. He made a small fortune supplying music to the amateur market. They were works that fall cleverly under the fingers, and he advanced his profits by publishing them for any number of different combinations of instruments. That’s not to say he didn’t dip his toe into deeper waters: he wrote cantatas, motets and stage works, of which the comic opera about Don Quixote is probably the best known. After a golden career in 1753 at the age of 63, Boismortier retired to enjoy life on a beautiful estate 45 minutes outside Paris.

That kind of material comfort was not to be Henri Desmarets’s destiny. Born in 1661, he started out as a page at the Sun King’s court. What was shaping up to be a promising career fell off the tracks after he eloped with one of his pupils. Her furious father got an order for his arrest, arranged for him to be attacked in the street, and dragged him through the courts. The furore finally ended when the couple fled into exile. In his absence, Desmarets was condemned to death. He eventually settled at the Court of Lorraine. There’s little doubt his fall from grace had a detrimental effect on his reputation. His operas and masses show him to be a talented and innovative composer. He was one of the very first composers known to have written for double choir and orchestra.

Once again proving he has his finger on the pulse, Boismortier chooses a subject to please Louis XVth's favourite mistress Madame de Pompadour, while Desmarets finds work in Madrid, only to be thwarted by the advent of war.

Boismortier: Daphnis et Chloé (Act 3)
Cantatille – Vole amour vole
Gaëlle Méchaly, soprano, Chloé
Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet, director

Boismortier: Daphnis et Chloé (Act 2, Sc 3, excerpt)
Rassemblons nous .... Vents orageux
Gaëlle Méchaly, soprano, Chloé
François-Nicolas Geslot, high tenor, Daphnis
Marie-Louise Duthoit, soprano, La Matelote
Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet, director

Desmarets: Domine ne furore
Sophie Daneman, soprano
Rebecca Ockenden, soprano
Paul Agnew, tenor
Laurent Slaars, baritone
Arnaud Marzorati, bass
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, director

Boismortier: Concerto for 5 flutes in A minor, Op 15/2
Barthold Kuijken
Danielle Etienne
Frank Theuns
Mark Hantaï
Serge Saitta

Desmarets: Circé
Sommeil - Ah! Que le sommeil est charmant
A Nocte Temporis
Reinoud Van Mechelen, tenor and director

Producer: Johannah Smith for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales