Unusually these three church cantatas are accompanied by a cello, which was uncommon, especially in church: in this case the five-string piccolo, fashionable at the start of the 18th century. The key to the originality and coherence of this recording by the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, with Concerto Vocale Leipzig, is to have approached these works from the instrumental angle.

Conductor Christophe Coin, who studied with Jordi Savall and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, has, for the last 30 years, been France’s most fervent apostle of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. It all came together in 1993: his first love of baroque music, his quest for authenticity in the interpretation of known and lesser known repertories, his approach to voices and period instruments, his work as a cellist himself, never sacrificed to a career as conductor… The record won a Diapason d’or, ƒƒƒƒ from Télérama and a Timbre de platine from Opéra International.