Ensemble Correspondances guides us gracefully through music for Louis XIV’s small private chapel choir and the grand masses required for events of state.

This admirable recording consists of five grands motets and six élévations or petits motets…Sébastien Daucé’s direction is lively and sensitive, and the recorded sound is exemplary

it seems unlikely that they receive better performances than here by the Ensemble Correspondances which in recent years has developed into one of the finest of its kind. The voices blend perfectly and the singers have a very good feeling for the mixture of Italian expression on the one hand and the elegance and the natural prosody which are features of French music under the ancien régime

The works here combine devoutness with an indulgent richness, surely what the job demanded. The harmonies are always expressive, and there are some magical things, not least the build-up of texture in O Mysterium itself. Under Sébastien Daucé’s direction, these performances are deliciously opulent.

These motets by the longtime servant of the court, Henry Du Mont, explore a rather limited expressive range with great skill. Their survival is fragmentary and conductor Sébastien Daucé has skilfully rewritten some of the inner parts: his singers include a wonderfully flexible but precise bass and a well-blended ensemble; the fascinating texts include Pierre Perrin’s intense hymn to the Trinity, O Mysterium.