Delalande: Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy | Grande Pièce en G ré sol | Academy of Ancient Music

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Michel-Richard Delalande (1657-1726), reconstructed Thomas Leconte: Grande Pièce en G ré sol - Deuxième Fantasie ou Caprice from Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy (1703)
Performed by Academy of Ancient Music, directed from the harpsichord by Paolo Zanzu, at Milton Court Concert Hall, London, 19 May 2022.
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The Sun King, Louis XIV of France, often dined on his own, but this didn’t mean that mealtimes were low-key affairs. The Duchess of Orléans recalled that the King often started with four different plates of soup before moving onto to a whole pheasant, a partridge, some salad, ham and lamb, pastries and fruit, the whole thing rounded off with some boiled eggs, every dish carefully tested to make sure that it was poison- free by the King’s dedicated team of tasters. It was an honour to be invited to watch the King at his mastications, and keeping a careful eye on the meal was an officier de bouche whose job it was to spot every time the King took a drink, and to command everyone present to follow suit with the words: ‘À boire pour le Roi!’
Since the King had no conversation to keep him entertained during this ritual, music played an important role. And in charge of this aspect of proceedings was the composer, organist and maître de musique de la chambre Michel-Richard Delalande. Two decades after Delalande’s death in 1726 a sumptuous collection appeared of music that he had composed for the King’s table, though it would be more accurate to say that the music was compiled from other Delalande works taken from various divertissements and ballets. The title of this collection makes clear
that these simphonies were performed only once a fortnight, rarely enough that they might be regarded as something of a special occasion rather than day-to-day background music. And of all the simphonies, we’re told that this second Fantasie in G minor was one that the king often asked to hear. Its mix of sombre chaconne-style variations, expansive lyrical melody and fleet-footed fast music would have struck a chord with an arts-loving king who was as tuned in to fine music as he was to his beloved dancing.
The reconstruction of the inner parts of Grande Pièce en G ré sol performed this evening are by Thomas Leconte, Centre de musique baroque de Versailles.
Programme notes © Sandy Burnett, 2022
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[@siriojanicolaev3389]

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[@Manu_Forti]

Wonderful. Deserves more attention

[@AlfredoLoCascio]

I agree!