Idyll of Peace for the Louis XIV

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Idylle sur la Paix

Marc-Antoine Charpentier

La Fête de Rueil

Teresa Wakim — soprano
Danielle Reutter-Harrah — soprano
Aaron Sheehan — tenor
Boston Early Music Festival Vocal and Chamber Ensembles
Paul O’Dette, Stephen Stubbs — music directors
Robert Mealy — concert master

cpo 555 678‒2

Review by Lukáš M. Vytlačil

When a truce between the French King Louis XIV and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I was concluded in Regensburg on 15^th August 1684 – bringing an end to the so-called War of the Reunions – it provided the French court with an opportunity for grand celebrations. Not only had the territory under the Sun King’s rule been expanded, but the acquisition of important cities such as Strasbourg and Metz also improved the security of the kingdom’s borders. Festive events had already been held since October 1684, when the truce was officially proclaimed, but the main celebrations took place in the following year. In January 1685, the opera Roland by Jean-Baptiste Lully, with a libretto by Philippe Quinault, was performed at Versailles. On 5^th and 6^th June, magnificent court festivities were launched, and – thanks in part to the activities of courtiers – they continued for several months. Prominent members of the court did not wish to remain mere passive participants; instead, they themselves became organizers of various festivities. It was precisely for such celebrations that the two works featured in the Boston Early Music Festival project were created, released on CD by the German label cpo (catalog no. 555 678‒2) in 2025.

On 16^th July 1685, the king attended a celebration held at the Château de Sceaux, south of Paris, organized by the Minister of the Navy, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, son of the famous finance minister Colbert. The highlight of the programme was a theatrical performance of Idylle sur la Paix, with a text by Jean Racine and music by the court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. It was a grand spectacle staged in a specially prepared amphitheatre with ephemeral scenery in the château’s orangery, from which the garden was decorated with a multitude of trees (including 280 orange trees alone). The libretto celebrated the greatness of the king’s victory and the success of the newly achieved peace. This allegorical performance, involving a large number of artists, was extraordinarily successful and, according to contemporary accounts, fully satisfied the king’s taste. The journal Mercure Galant stated that the Idylle was Lully’s most accomplished musical setting to date, and the truly grand spectacle left lasting impressions on its audience even years later. Descriptions of the event spread throughout Europe via diplomats and, like Louis’s court at Versailles, became an inspiration for courtly ceremonial celebrations. The work itself was performed many more times, and recognition was also gained by an additional dance composed by Lully, Chaconne pour Madame la Princesse de Conti. The dedication was addressed to one of the important women of Louis’s court, his distant cousin Marie-Thérèse, Princess de Conti, from the Bourbon dynasty.

Far less fortunate was the celebration organized by Armand-Jean de Vignerot du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu, at his château in Rueil. His intention was to mark both the first anniversary of the Regensburg truce and the centenary of the birth of his relative, the renowned Cardinal Richelieu, former chief minister to Louis XIII, and to unveil a life-size statue of Louis XIV. The duke commissioned music from Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who composed the ballet La Fête de Rueil to a libretto of unknown authorship. Charpentier’s compositional talent had to contend with a text that did not reach the high quality of Racine’s Idylle sur la Paix, yet he still succeeded in creating an engaging work praising not only the greatness of the monarch but also the beauty of Rueil. Although the Duke of Richelieu did not intend to rival the grandeur of the festivities at Sceaux, he had to postpone his celebration several times, and the king ultimately departed to the château in Chambord. On 26^th August 1685, only a small delegation from the court arrived in Rueil, for whom a ceremonial lunch was organised. On that occasion, a reduced version of La Fête de Rueil was performed, along with another short work by Charpentier, La France au Roi, which, as its title suggests, also celebrated the monarch.

Today, the works of both Lully and Charpentier mentioned here are unique evidence of the musical component of occasional festivities through which French aristocrats celebrated Louis XIV. These compositions are not frequently performed on concert stages, and in the Czech Republic they are virtually unheard, making recordings a valuable opportunity to reflect on this repertoire. The recording by the Boston Early Music Festival Vocal & Chamber Ensembles, prepared by lutenists Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs and violinist Robert Mealy, is noteworthy not only for its dramaturgy. The musicians have succeeded in capturing the performance style of the French Baroque with great skill, and both the instrumental and choral performance are of a very high standard, not only thanks to technical cohesion, but also due to their command of specific articulation and ornamentation. In terms of timbre, alongside the choruses, the more delicate passages featuring transverse flutes are also particularly successful. The only exception in an otherwise high-quality performance is found in the soprano recorders in the prelude “Que je sens de plaisir” from Charpentier’s La Fête de Rueil, which, despite their brief entries, struggle with audible intonation problems. Given the nature of the genre, the soloists are assigned only smaller airs, all of which are handled very well. Their performances also reveal careful dramatic preparation by Gilbert Blin, which undoubtedly contributes positively to the overall level.

The problem, however, lies in the very small-scale ensemble, consisting of only eight vocalists, two violins, two violas, continuo (cello, viola da gamba, bassoon, harpsichord, and two theorbos), two flutes, and oboes. It is clear that today it is not always possible to perform works with ensembles as large as those originally intended; nevertheless, it is important to seek a reasonable compromise between the intended form of the compositions and what is economically and organizationally feasible. In my opinion, this was not achieved – at least in Lully’s Idylle. A pompous work whose open-air performance must have involved several dozen players, with wind instruments at least doubled, here instead comes across as a chamber piece of cantata-like character, only occasionally hinting at the scale and grandeur of the original festive spectacle. This is particularly significant because Lully himself authoritatively shaped the programmatic form of musical representation at Louis’s court. By contrast, Charpentier’s works were conceived by the composer in a somewhat more intimate manner, and thus sound more authentic and convincing on this recording in most of their sections. This recording therefore also provides an opportunity to reflect on how we perform musical works and how, within historically informed performance practice, we can engage not only with interpretive style but also with historical information about the form and ensemble forces for which this music was originally intended.

Lully: Idylle sur la paix, LWV 68: Overture.

The Czech original of the text was published on polyharmonie.cz.