Reconstructed musical glories that saw Louis XIV banishing the night and heralding in a glittering era.

Le Concert Royal de la Nuit
Ensemble Correspondances/Sébastien Daucé
Harmonia Mundi HMC952223/24 (2CD)

You have times in history where a place becomes a centre, and at this time Paris was the centre. That’s why I wanted to add Italian music – to have a complete photograph of the richness of music at this time in Paris – Sebastien Daucé

Sun King trips the light fantastic

Louis XIV was 15 in 1653 when he took part in a lavishly staged ballet performed on seven evenings in the Salle du Petit-Bourbon at the Louvre Palace. The spectacle was remembered for decades after and gave Louis his title of “the Sun King”; the four “watches” of the night with some sinister post-midnight revelries culminated in a glorious dawn with the King strutting his stuff in a costume of glittering celestial glory.

Sébastien Daucé has spent three years recreating this work from fragments and disparate sources; a project of great scholarship, integrity...