With the Charpentier Midnight Mass as its centerpiece, A Baroque Christmas favors the French repertory, which includes anonymous noels and a Charpentier instrumental suite. Complementing this group are Monteverdi choral pieces, a Schein motet, and Purcell’s dramatic solo aria "The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation," sung by soprano Anna Azema.
Since the early 1970s, the Boston Camerata, under the direction of Joel Cohen, has flourished as one of the best-known early music groups in America. This album from 1992 features a spirited mix of vocal and instrumental fare with the same appeal that has kept their earlier Christmas titles among the top Nonesuch sellers.
With the Charpentier Midnight Mass as its centerpiece, A Baroque Christmas favors the French repertory, which includes anonymous noels and a Charpentier instrumental suite. Complementing this group are Monteverdi choral pieces, a Schein motet, and Purcell’s dramatic solo aria “The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation,” sung by soprano Anna Azema
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Kathryn King
Recorded May 1991 at Church of the Covenant, Boston, Massachusets
Recording engineer: David Griesinger
Edited by Jack Vad and Larry Rock
Production assistant: Josiah Child
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig
Design by James Victore Design Works
Cover: Le Nouveau-Né by Georges de la Tour, courtesy of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes
Executive Producer: Peter Clancy
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MUSICIANS
The Boston Camerata
Joel Cohen, director
Anne Azéma, Elizabeth Weigle, soprano
Richard Duguay, tenor
Dan McCabe, baritone
Arizender Urreiztieta, bass
Robert Mealy, concertmaster, baroque violin
Katherine Sutherland, baroque violin
Harold Lieberman, baroque viola
Carol Lewis, viola de gamba
Jesse Lepkoff, flute, recorder
Katie Roth, flute
Owen Watkins, recorder
Michael Dolbow, violone
Olva Chris Henriksen, theorbo, baroque guitar
Francis Conover Fitch, organ
The Schola Cantorum of Boston
Frederick Jodry, director
Alice Dampman, Sandra Stuart, sopranos
Rob Dobson, Frederick Jodry, altos
John Delorey, Arthur Rawding, tenors
John Holyoke, baritone
Gregory Mancusi-Ungaro, bass
