CLAUDE LE JEUNE Missa Ad Placitum. Magnificat Ensemble Clément Janequin, Dominique Visse

A Mass 'As It Pleases'.
A native of Valenciennes, the Huguenot Claude Le Jeune had the privilege of ending his life as 'Composer to the Chamber' of Henry IV. This royal recognition crowned the career of one of the great masters of the late French Renaissance. Although he owed a great deal to the Franco-Flemish School, nothing prevented him from developing a truly original style imbued with an astonishing theatrical sense - to the point that certain surprise-effects make him something of a premature Haydn. This quality shows itself in his Catholic works, too, as in this Mass 'ad placitum' (as it pleases), whose title is not the least of its enigmas . . .
This title was released for the first time in 1996.