Radio Times: Review by:; David Gillard

Bathe in the musical warmth of the court of the Sun King as the Academy of Ancient Music brings us Musical Revolutions: Age of the French Baroque. Louis XIV’s bountiful patronage ensured a cultural golden age, though one composer was to dominate the French court — the Italian-born Jean-Baptiste Lully.

Best known for his revolutionary ballet and opera scores, Lully also wrote a few compositions for the church and the four on offer here were, according to the AAM, “to forge a new direction in European sacred music with their bold instrumental lines and innovative balance of solo and choral voices”.

About this programme

Live from London's Wigmore Hall, the Academy of Ancient Music is joined by its choir directed by Richard Egarr at the organ in a programme of French Baroque music celebrating the golden age at the court of Louis XIV. Four of Lully's profound church works are interspersed with instrumental pieces by his contemporaries, Charpentier and Marais. Presented by Suzy Klein. Academy of Ancient Music, Choir of the Academy of Ancient Music, director Richard Egarr (organ). Lully: De profundis. Charpentier: Sonate à huit. Lully: Regina coeli. 8.10 Twenty Minutes: Lully's Sacred Music. Stephen Johnson focuses on Lully's surviving sacred works, and discovers a composer remarkably attuned to the opportunities and pitfalls of combining theatre and church in music. 8.30 Lully: Salve regina. Marais: Suite from Sonatas pour le Coucher du Roy. Lully: Dies irae.