The programme of the first ever collaboration between the CMBV choir Les Chantres and Daniel Cuiller’s Stradivaria ensemble evokes the final glimmers of the baroque world before the collapse of the Ancien Régime. Both Bernard de Bury and François Giroust were major musicians at the court of Louis XVI’s – the former was born in Versailles, studied under Colin de Blamont and went on to pursue a brilliant career with the Musique de la Chambre and the Académie Royale de Musique. In 1746 he composed a commemoration for  Marie-Thérèse de Bourbon,  De profundis. François Giroust had a prestigious career. After training at the Notre-Dame de Paris choir school he composed a mass for the coronation of Louis XVI  in 1775. As the advent of a new Monarch should not eclipse his departed predecessor,  François Giroust composed this stirring requiem mass to commemorate Louis XV that same year. He was the last Superintendent of music during the Ancien Régime, then (somewhat strangely) served as concierge at the deserted Palace of Versailles during the Revolution,  safeguarding the keys to a precious paradise lost.