Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, was required to convert to Roman Catholicism before he could be crowned Henry IV, King of France, in 1594. Claude le Jeune, also a Huguenot, was not required to convert when Henry appointed him Royal Composer in 1595 and thus was able to remain what he had always been, a devout French Protestant. In this survey of his settings of texts from both sides of the religious abyss that divided France in the sixteenth century, le Jeune shows himself as a great composer for either side. Indeed, although his setting of the Roman Catholic Magnificat is in the grand style of the state religion and his setting of the proto-Protestant Savonarola's meditation Tristitia obsedit me is in the austere style of the reformed faith, le Jeune never sounds less than wholly sincere, entirely spiritual, and utterly French.
Olivier Schneebeli leads Les Pages & les Chantres at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles in performances ideally unifying the divergent faiths in a common music of gentle rhythms, luminous harmonies, and flowing mellifluousness, calming the religious passions of the time in the balm of spiritual blessedness. Once again, Alpha's production values -- from the clarity of the sound to the beauty of the anonymous double portrait on the cover -- are all first-rate.