There's certainly no shortage of excellent recordings of Charpentier's sacred music, and this new offering by Reinhard Goebel and the Musica Antiqua Köln adds to the list of first-rate choices. Though titled "Musique Sacrée", there's very little here that we would immediately recognize as sacred music of this period. In fact, with the exception of the Messe pour plusieurs instruments au lieu des orgues (the only work featuring a vocal ensemble), most listeners would be hard pressed to identify religious associations in these works without a hint from their titles. While this is not exactly a complaint, had Archiv promoted this offering as simply a compilation of Charpentier's instrumental settings (which are extremely rare!) surely even more listeners would find the disc interesting.

That quibble aside, this is an outstanding recording that everyone interested in the French baroque will enjoy. Those familiar with the famous fanfare that begins Charpentier's Te Deum will delight in the equally celebratory Marche de triomphe pour les violons, trompettes, timbales, flutes, et hautbois that opens this program--a grand spectacular that the Köln musicians perform to the hilt. The previously mentioned Messe is a lovely work that interpolates brief instrumental movements with equally brief Gregorian liturgical settings. Other highlights include two Symphonies pour un reposoir, both intended as ceremonial music for the Feast of Corpus Christi. As in the finest orchestral efforts of Charpentier's illustrious contemporaries Lully, Couperin, and Rameau, these complex yet accessible works feature spirited dance movements, grandiloquent processionals, and (befitting the subject) moments of melancholic reprieve.

The program begins with a bang and it ends with an even more spectacular one--a wonderfully rowdy Second air de trompettes, violons, flutes et hautbois et timbales. Listeners used to the recent, comparatively mild-mannered approach exhibited by Ledger, Leppard, Malgoire, and even Christie and Niquet in their dabblings in Charpentier's orchestral music are in for a treat with Goebel's dynamically charged, roof-raising performance. Archiv's sound is equally spectacular with plenty of spatial presence and instrumental detail. Goebel's notes are informative and entertaining. Also included is a nearly 70-minute bonus CD sampler commemorating Musica Antiqua Köln's 25 years with Archiv.

--John Greene