Ensemble Correspondances

Founded in Lyon in 2009, Ensemble Correspondances, directed by harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé, brings together a group of singers and instrumentalists, all of whom are specialists in the music of the Grand Siècle. During its few short years of existence, Correspondances has become a benchmark ensemble for 17-century French repertory. The group follows Baudelaire’s notion of correspondences between the arts, performing music whose sonorities can still directly touch today’s listeners while presenting rare and original staged productions such as oratorios and ballets de cour.

The ensemble’s twin commitments to breathing new life into already well-known composers and restoring the image of figures less familiar today has already yielded nine critically acclaimed recordings. These have earned such distinctions as the Choc de Classica, ffff de Télérama, the Diapason d’Or, the ECHO Preis for the World Premiere Recording of the Year 2016, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Operatic Recording of the Year 2016 in Limelight magazine, and the Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros. All these recordings bear witness to the ensemble’s exploratory spirit, whether with Marc-Antoine Charpentier in O Maria! (2010), the Litanies de la Vierge (2013), the Pastorale de Noël and Antiennes O de l’Avent (2016), or the recent release, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers (2017). Others include Antoine Boësset’s L’Archange et le Lys, (2011), Etienne Moulinié’s Meslanges pour la Chapelle d’un Prince (2015), Henry du Mont’s O Mysterium (2016) and Michel-Richard de Lalande’s Leçons de Ténèbres with Sophie Karthäuser (2015). The most recent disc, Perpetual Night (2018), explores the fascinating English repertory of the early 17th century with alto, Lucile Richardot.

Sébastien Daucé and Correspondances are in residence at the Théâtre de Caen, where they developed their first staged projects (Trois Femmes directed by Vincent Huguet in 2016, and Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit directed by Francesca Lattuada in November 2017). They are associate artists at the Centre Culturel de Rencontre d’Ambronay, at the Opéra and Chapelle of the Château de Versailles, and at La Chapelle de la Trinité with the support of the Ville de Lyon. Significant stages in the ensemble’s career have been tours to Japan, Colombia, the United States and China, alongside regular appearance in Europe (the United Kingdom, Germany, Benelux, Italy, Poland).

Solweig Barbier at www.ensemblecorrespondances.com