Scheduled 24 Novembre 2022 to 1st June 2023 Les Jeudis musicaux concerts are jointly organised by the CMBV, the public institution of the Palace of Versailles and the Paris CNSMD. Weekly concerts performed by the CMBV choir Les Pages & Les Chantres are held in the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles. 

This season’s Jeudis musicaux concerts produced by Fabien Armengaud has three main themes, offering audiences a rich programme of baroque masterpieces and neglected gems. The theme of Baroque Piety encompasses the iconic forms of sacred music from the petit motet (Bernier, Danielis & the Tours manuscript) to the polyphonic mass, with a new production of Missa In aeternum cantabo by Charles d’Helfer and a series of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Histoires sacrées directed by Emmanuelle Haïm. The generous acoustics of the Royal Chapel lends itself well to polychoral music, enhancing works by Charpentier, Benevoli and the Mazzochi brothers. The Pomp and Circumstance theme gives audiences a chance to hear two historic revivals, the first from the Lyon Académie des Beaux-Arts  (two works by François Estienne and Nicolas Antoine Bergiron) and the second with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, music for the Camp du drap d’or (the famous diplomatic meeting in Balinghem of François 1er and Henry VIII of England). Emmanuelle Haïm will round off her residency at the CMBV choir school by directing a programme devoted to the iconic genre, the tragédie en musique. Like every year, the CMBV choir school will be joined by musicians from the Versailles Grand Parc conservatoire, the Paris-Saclay CRD, the PSPBB and the Paris regional conservatoire.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Free admission, subject to availability. Pre-booking advisable via the CMBV website. Priority seating for CMBV Cercle Rameau members. Reservations open on the Monday before Jeudis Musicaux concerts. Group bookings welcome: for further details please contact Esther Van Dooren or Laurine Colombier. Email actionculturelle@cmbv.com,  or call +33 (0)1 39 20 78 10.

Jeudis musicaux concerts take place every Thursday at 5.30 pm November through June (except during school & public holidays) in the Royal Chapel or Galerie des Batailles in the Palace of Versailles.