In Excelsis Deo (Barcelona 1702 - Versailles 1709) (2SACD)

In the context of the War of the Spanish Succession, the duty of any composer was to celebrate not only the greatness of a deity in religious pieces, but also the power of their sponsors. Jordi Savall invites us to relive the creation of two dazzling masterpieces of polychoral music : the Missa Scala Aretina by Francesc Valls (one of the last pieces to make overt reference to Guido of Arezzo’s famous hexachord) and the Mass for 2 Choruses and Orchestras by Henry Desmarest. The surface of the music is immediately engaging : it is a beguiling mixture of old and new, full of incidence, with choir, soloists and parts for strings and trumpet. Jordi Savall and his ensembles pay due homage to these masterpieces.