In Paris, at the dawn of the 18th century, the Concert spirituel was created by the oboist Anne Danican Philidor.
During the Parisian musical evenings of the Concert spirituel in 1750, one could hear a few pages by the great Lully, then by the innovative Rameau, and a few notes of sacred music alternating with the latest fashionable cantata. This was called the “Fragments”, the idea being to retain only the best, or rather what was most popular in those years.
In order to get away from the model of the “musical archaeologist researcher” who recreates an identical work, but in a very distant context, we retain this almost guilty idea of hearing the best of the great composers, with, for example, an overture and an aria by the great Rameau, a violin concerto by Leclair, or even an excerpt from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, a fragment of Pergolesi, or of the great German composer Hasse.
In order to perform the music of the Concert spirituel in the spirit of the programs of the time, i.e. with a pronounced taste for virtuoso composers, modernity and Italy, while preserving the best of the French works of the past, we have built a festive best of, conceived for a chamber orchestra and a voice, organised around several key works and the idea of virtuosity, as a moment, a gesture of pure musical pleasure.
