Thursday 13 November 2025
6pm
Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall Cantata Project with Academy of Ancient Music
directed by James Johnstone
Programme
Robert de Visée
Prelude in A minor
from Vaudry de Saizenay
Michel Lambert
‘Ma bergère’
Jean Henry d’Anglebert
Prelude in G minor
from Pièces de clavecin
Michel Lambert
‘Ombre de mon amant’
‘Vos mespris chaques jour’
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Le Reniement de St Pierre H424
I. Cum caenasset Jesus et dedisset discipulis
II. Ecce Judas unus de duodecim venit
III. Tunc respexit Jesus Petrum
Interval
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Les Plaisirs de Versailles H480
Guildhall Cantata Project with Academy of Ancient Music
Soprano
Mengyixuan Qi
Claire Ward+
Alto
Roei Shafrir
Angharad Rowlands+
Tenor
Jacob Cole
William Prasetyo
David de Winter+
Baritone
Ben Watkins
Jon Stainsby+
Recorder
Mia Vojic
Catherine Fleming*
Ian Wilson*
Cello
Rowena Taylor
Theorbo
Stefano Fiacco
Harp
Eleanor Medcalf
Keyboards
Ben Cole
Tom Dilley
Sharona Joshua
* Guildhall School of Music & Drama professor
+ Academy of Ancient Music
About
Every schoolboy once knew – in the sense of 1066 and All That – of the musical battle between the French bon goût and il furibondo of Italy. And yet Lully was an Italian, whose musical education was in Paris, whilst his “compatriot” Charpentier was a Frenchman who travelled to Rome. There he may or may not have studied with Carissimi (the origin story was already being written during Charpentier’s lifetime) but he undoubtedly absorbed the sounds of the late 1660s, returning them to Paris through manuscripts and his ‘prodigious’ musical memory, as de Brossard later recalled. These are in evidence in his early dramatic motet Le Reniement de St Pierre, Charpentier demonstrating his genius in creating a narrative through the fabric of his music. The calm certainty with which Jesus warns Peter of his impending repudiation – each clause coinciding with the harmonic rhythm – immediately jars with Peter’s off-beat disbelief, foreshadowing his actual denials. Even more extraordinary is Charpentier’s final depiction of Peter’s bitter tears. Unlike Bach’s solo Evangelist, Charpentier’s intertwining chorus lines – the plangent suspensions – involve musicians and listeners alike in the physicality of musical sound, no longer just observing but momentarily becoming Peter.
Far less serious, but still composed with equally insightful characterisation, is Charpentier’s operatic entertainment Les Plaisirs de Versailles. Although Charpentier never rose to royal patronage, he wrote sacred music for the dauphin, who maintained a separate musical establishment from Louis XIV; it is likely that it was these musicians who performed Les Plaisirs de Versailles in the king’s “apartments”. The entertainment would probably now be described as rather meta, invoking as it does the pleasures and behaviours of the courtiers’ evening. Music, with her sensuous harmonies, and Conversation, with her repetitive repartee, compete with each other to be heard and to be the pre-eminent source of pleasure. The Chorus of Pleasures, afraid that such bickering will draw their evening to a premature close, call on Comus, the God of Festivities and Jeu, the personification of games, to intervene. Offers of wine and chocolate, pastries and marzipan, do little to help, but eventually Music and Conversation agree that they can both help distract the king from the demands of state.
Like Lully, Michel Lambert was prominent as a dancer and a musician. As well as dancing for the young Louis XIV’s ballet, he was the pre-eminent singing teacher of the mid-seventeenth century, sang as a soloist for the king, and was the most prolific composer of airs; the three hundred and thirty or so that have survived are a fraction of the at least twenty volumes published in his lifetime. The declamation of his texts is always bound to his music, whether above the dance-like chaconne basses (Ma bergère and Vos mespris chaques jour) or in the almost recitative lament Ombre de mon amant. Lambert’s daughter married Lully; their marriage contract was signed by Louis XIV and not one, but two queens!
Programme note by Christopher Suckling
For well over a decade, James Johnstone has led collaborations between the Vocal and Historical Performance departments at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, performing sacred and secular chamber cantatas from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as long as they are not by Bach! As well appearing at Guildhall School, the Cantata Project are regular visitors to Blackheath and Hatchlands Park and have appeared in the Spitalfields and London Handel festivals. For this project they are joined for the first time by vocalists from the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM). Guildhall School is proud of its long-standing association with AAM; many of AAM’s members are Guildhall School alumni and professors. Side-by-side performance projects are a highlight of students’ annual calendars; following two years of operatic collaborations for Handel’s Alcina and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, this project expands the relationship to much more intimate music.
Texts
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Le Reniement de St Pierre (The Denial of St Peter)
When Jesus had dined and he had given them his body to eat and his blood to drink, they went out together to the mount of Olives. Jesus said to them:
“You will all be offended for my sake, this night. For it is written: I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.”
But Peter, replying, said to him:
“Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.”
“Verily I say unto thee, Peter, that this night, before the cock crows, thou shalt deny me thrice.”
“Ah! Lord! Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.”
Likewise all the disciples said ”We will not deny thee.”
Lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves ran up to Jesus and held him, and seeing this, the disciples fled. And Peter stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Jesus said to him:
“Peter, put away your sword. Do you not wish me to drink the cup that my Father has given me?”
Therefore the soldiers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him and led him to the chief priests. Peter followed at a distance, even to the house of the bishop. A doorkeeper saw him and said to him:
“Are you not also a disciple of that man?.”
“O woman! I am not. I do not know the man.”
And Peter enered the house. As he sat by the fire with the servants and soldiers to warm himself, another servant said to him:
“Were you also with Jesus of Nazareth?”
“O woman, I was not! I do not know the man.”
Then a relation of the one whose ear he had cut off questioned him:
(Relation of Malchus): “Did I not see you in the garden with him? Did you not cut off Malchus’ ear? Surely it was you.”
(Doorkeeper, serving maid): “Aren’t you a Galilean? Surely you are.”
(73) “Even your accent gives you away. You are a disciple of that man.”
(Peter): “I am not. Surely I was not. I don’t know what you are talking about.”
(74) And immediately the cock crew. Then Jesus looked at Peter and Peter remembered the words of Jesus, and he went out, and wept bitterly.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Les Plaisirs de Versailles (The Pleasures of Versailles)
Overture
Scene 1
Music, Chorus
Music
Let all succumb to my beguiling music.
Mortal Gods, revere the divine harmony!
It is easy to banish from the elements
My enemy, Discord,
And to regulate the movements
Of these luminous bodies, whose infinite power
Creates the joys
Or disasters of life.
But what makes my destiny enviable
Is that mine is the glory to be loved
By the most celebrated of conquerors.
Mortal Gods, revere divine harmony!
The monarch of the lily
Indulges in me as a glorious diversion.
Let all succumb to my beguiling music.
Chorus
Mortal Gods, revere divine harmony!
The monarch of the lily
Indulges in me as a glorious diversion.
Let all succumb to my beguiling music.
Scene 2
Music, Conversation and Chorus
Music
What importunate object appears before my eyes?
Conversation
Rare daughter of the sky, do not fear me!
It is true that my tongue is a little cheeky,
But I only come here to talk in whispers
And to draw attention in gallant fashion
To your great eloquence and charm.
Rare daughter of the sky, do not fear me!
Music
Attention and silence
Accord better with my design
Than your indiscreet babbling
Which never ends
And always begins.
Let us come to terms: speak!
Conversation
Let us come to terms: sing!
Music
And I shall be silent.
Conversation
I shall listen.
Music
I am ready to sing.
Conversation
If you wish to sing…
Music
If you wish to be silent…
Music
Be silent!
Conversation
I am silent to please you.
Music
To please you I shall sing.
Conversation
Sing, then!
Music
Be silent!
Conversation
I am silent to please you.
Music
To please you I shall sing.
Love, come and kindle my voice.
Without you, without your tender sweetness,
I should not be able to move
The most charming of kings.
Conversation
Such delicate expression!
No one can match such naïvety!
Music
Prattling divinity, Keep your promise.
Love, come and kindle my voice.
Without you, without your tender sweetness,
I should not be able to move
The most charming of kings.
But if your flame gives life to my songs,
I’ll have the joy of moving his great heart.
Conversation
Ah, what a lovely cadence!
It carries away, transports,
Enchants the senses.
Music
Prattling divinity,
may your tongue become
so confused between your teeth,
that it lose forever the tiresome habit
of inopportune praise,
and become an example to the numerous
wearisome wits,
who in ever praising
assassinate men and women.
Minuet
Conversation
Pray let us hear this courante again!
Music
Minuet, a minuet, you ignoramus!
Conversation
A minuet, for all I care.
I’ll die through ignorance,
Though I die in vain to learn.
Music
Enough, enough!
Let’s end this conversation.
Conversation
Farewell, farewell, companionable siren,
Do not out of spite prepare your own coffin
From your loss the poetic waters of the learned
Hippocrene
Would plunge all France in mourning
Farewell, farewell, companionable siren.
Chorus
Cease! Stay! Do not leave this place!
For the sake of an annoying discourse,
Would you deprive Louis,
This glorious hero,
Of the pleasures that music afford?
Music
Then let her cease her odious prattle!
Conversation
Conversation is the only talent
That I received from the Gods,
And I wish to make use of it,
Despite envious people.
Music
Let us depart, let us depart!
They will blame my lack of politics,
But it’s the best that I can do.
Chorus
Cease! Stay! Do not leave this place!
For the sake of an annoying discourse,
Would you deprive Louis,
This glorious hero,
Of the pleasures that music afford?
Scene 3
One of the Pleasures
Come, god of feasts,
Settle their quarrels.
Comus
Let your disputes not cause commotion here!
Let us play. To both of you beauties I shall dispense
Chocolate.
Music
Chocolate!
God forbid that he give any
To this chatter-box.
As for you, I tell you,
I do not wish to taste any.
She would never cease her heated chatter.
Conversation
Chocolate is good, dear Comus.
By your influence
I long to taste a little.
Comus, to listen to her is to waste good time.
Chocolate!
Music
No, Comus!
May God preserve us from that,
She would never cease her heated chatter.
Comus
I have bottles in abundance
Of a delicious Côte Rôtie
Which would make a Jeremiah laugh.
Drink! I invite you.
If one is sad,
One must forget,
And far from upsetting reason,
The divine justice strengthens it.
Conversation
Comus! Chocolate is good.
Music
No, Comus, may God preserve us from chocolate.
Conversation
Comus, to listen to her is to waste good time.
Chocolate!
Music
May God preserve us,
She would never cease her heated chatter.
Conversation
May I taste a little.
Comus
I have liquid jams
That the finest palates prize,
I have many lofty pyramids
Of tarts and marzipan cake,
And I have them in my disposal, as God of Feasts.
Music and Conversation
Comus, we want neither marzipan nor tarts.
Comus
If you do not want
These delicate treats
To put an end to your dispute,
Goddesses, take these cards.
The God of Games arrives
And has enough for all of us.
Scene 4
God of Games and the above
God of Games
If cards, dice, an innocent trou-madam,
Billiards, draughts, backgammon, chess,
Pair-royals and twelve-faced dice
Cannot dispel sorrow from your soul,
You will never see the end of your proceedings.
Chorus
If cards, dice, an innocent troll-maiden,
Billiards, draughts, backgammon, chess,
Pair-royals and twelve-faced dice
Cannot dispel sorrow from your soul,
You will never see the end of your proceedings.
Gaming and Comus
What must be done, then,
To pacify you, my fair ones?
Gaming
If the lure of my gaming…
Camus
If my dainty morsels…
Comus and Gaming
Are unable to please you…
Music
I must have silence.
Conversation
I must have chocolate.
Chorus
Here is a fine topic
To make such a fuss about.
Comus
Goddess of discourse, this cup is full.
Take, drink and be silent if you can.
Conversation
Willingly.
Music
Well said, I consent to that.
O lute, o sweet voice,
Since it is permitted,
Let us proclaim this great King.
Let all the world admires
His great name,
The fear of all the enemies
Of his happy empire,
And the love that he inspires
In his subjects.
Conversation
Ah, this chocolate has a delicious aroma
And its sweetness is just right.
But I wager that no one
Could ever drink hotter.
Music
Were it as hot as your sharp tongue,
It would have carried the burns for four months and more.
Conversation
Gently, gently! That is beyond a joke.
Permit me, melodious lady,
To give you a good dressing down
And to be a little aggrieved
If to speak, according to you,
Is the greatest of crimes.
Go and sing in the convents,
Silence reigns there all the time.
To whom are you preaching your maxims?
Do you take these handsome courtiers for minims?
Know, that at Court one adapts to others.
What? For a mi fa sol that music intones,
It will be forbidden to talk to others?
What a fine state of affairs!
Would not France
Fall into decadence
Without its do, re, mi, fa, so, la?
What a fine state of affairs!
Chorus
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!
What a fine state of affairs!
Music
Rather over-sensitive Goddess
My behaviour towards you should be acknowledged.
I only affected this previous air
To provide you material for mockery
And to show your playful spirit in the best possible
Light.
Conversation
Ah, if that is so,
Ingenious Music,
I was wrong to have made a fool of you.
Music
If Louis has laughed,
I shall count myself happy enough.
Chorus
Great King wreathed in laurels,
If to relax you from your martial tasks
Our flutes and voices seem impotent,
Consider our wishes to be deeds,
And may your flourishing arms without delay,
Despite the resurgent heads of this Hydra opposed to
The delights of peace,
Fulfil your noble purpose.
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Forthcoming Events
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25 November 2025
Silk Street Lecture Recital Room
Students from the String department present a selection of repertoire in these informal concerts.
Songs at Six: Postcards from Italy
25 November 2025
Milton Court Concert Hall
Eugene Asti leads this Songs at Six recital of songs with an Italian connection by composers including Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Brahms and others.
Postgraduate Strings Concert
27 November 2025
Silk Street Music Hall
Students from the String department present a selection of repertoire in these informal concerts.
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