La Chapelle Royale Explained

La Chapelle Royale is a French ensemble of baroque music.

History

La Chapelle Royale was founded in 1977 in Paris by the Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe. It takes its name from the Chapelle royale of the French kings.

The initial vocation of the ensemble was to interpret the great French repertoire of the 17th century (Henri Dumont, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, André Campra, Jean Gilles...) but, since 1985, Herreweghe associated it more and more with his own Belgian ensemble, the Collegium Vocale Gent.

Next to La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe also founded the "Ensemble Vocal Européen de la Chapelle Royale".

La Chapelle Royale was, during the 1980s, together with Les Arts Florissants, one of the pillars of the musical revolution known in France and Belgium under the name of "Baroqueux" (see Historically informed performance or "performance on period instruments"), initiated during the 1970s by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt.

Recordings[1]

La Chapelle Royale

La Chapelle Royale with Collegium Vocale Gent

La Chapelle Royale with Collegium Vocale Gent and Orchestre des Champs Elysées

Ensemble Vocal Européen de la Chapelle Royale

All these recordings have been published by Harmonia Mundi.

References

  1. See catalogue of Harmonia Mundi France