La Chapelle Royale

La Chapelle Royale is a French ensemble of baroque music.

History

La Chapelle Royale has been founded in 1977 in Paris by the Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe.

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 to his own Belgian ensemble, the Collegium Vocale Gent, in a repertoire almost exclusively dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach.

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

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

1981 : Motets pour la Chapelle du roy, Henry Du Mont
1985 : Grands Motets, Jean-Baptiste Lully
1985 : Motet Pour l'Offertoire de la Messe Rouge et Miserere H.219, Marc-Antoine Charpentier
1986 : Motets, Josquin Desprez
1987 : Musikalische Exequien, Heinrich Schütz
1987 : Requiem, André Campra
1990 : Requiem, Jean Gilles
1991 : Cantates pour basse BWV 82, 56 et 128, Johann Sebastian Bach

1985 : Matthäus Passion BWV 244, Johann Sebastian Bach (Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale)
1987 : Vespro della Beata Vergina, Claudio Monteverdi (Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale, Saqueboutiers de Toulouse)
1988 : Johannes Passion BWV 245, Johann Sebastian Bach (Collegium Vocale, Orchestre de la Chapelle Royale)
1990 : Cantate Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats BWV 42, Johann Sebastian Bach (Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale)
1990 : Magnificat BWV 243, Johann Sebastian Bach (Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale)

All these recordings have been published by Harmonia Mundi.