Here is a very special recording devoted to early 18th-century dance music for which we have recently rediscovered choreographies from the period. Such a discovery may well come as a surprise, since it is not generally realised that, long before the proliferation of various 20th-century systems of dance notation, an earlied system had already been invented and them forgotten, only to be rediscovered within the last few years.

For this second recording devoted to French Baroque music for two solo transverse flutes, Marie-Céline Labbé and Marion Treupel-Franck perform the six suites by Pierre Danican Philidor (1681 1731), pieces taken from the three collections published by the composer in Paris in 1717 and 1718. Written in a highly original style in which one senses the spirit of freedom blowing over Versailles and France during the regency of the Duke d’Orléans, these short suites, in addition to the principal dances in vogue at the court of Versailles in the early 18th century, each comprise a fugue.

François-André Danican Philidor started his musical career as a boy chorister in the Chapelle Royal at Versailles. Taught by Campra, his first motet was performed there in 1738. At the same time as he was building his career in music, Philidor acquired considerable ability as a chess player, and in the 1740s he could regularly be found playing opponents such as Voltaire and Rousseau in the Café de la Régence.

The London Oboe Band have been around since the early 1980s yet this, remarkably, is their first recording. I dare say that ten years ago an ensemble of these potentially troublesome baroque wind instruments might not have been the happiest sound imaginable, but things have come a long way since then, and there is really no faulting the standard of playing on this disc. Led by one of the best baroque oboists around, the band plays with consistently accurate intonation, good blending and refinement of sound. Every one of their instruments is a modern copy, and if that means that the sheer exotic colouring of some of those wonderful old oboes is missing, the benefits in reliability are obvious right from the first notes.

Canadian ensemble Notturna offers a charming instrumental version of the opera L'Amant jaloux (the jealous lover) by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741-1813). This anonymous arrangement for flute, oboe, violin, viola, and bass was found in the Biblioteca Estense di Modena. Though undated, it was likely transcribed in 1778, the year Grétry composed the opera. Founded in 2006 and directed by oboist Christopher Palameta, Notturna is a chamber collective whose spirited and sensitive playing (Early Music America) draws on the transparency and expressiveness of early wind instruments to paint fresh pictures of an unexplored historical repertoire.

The Sun King’s Mass was without doubt one of the privileged rites for the standing glory of the sovereign, as much because of its splendour, as for its ceremonial aspect, which brings time to a halt, solidifying the eternal image of royal power. The greatest composers of the kingdom distinguished themselves by making the holy service a veritable heavenly concert. The bell rang, the fifes and drums announced the arrival of the king in the gallery, the organ burst forth, the Grands Motets by Lully and Delalande enthralled under the golden vaults, the delicate and intimate petits motets by Couperin appear with grace in the alcoves of the Royal Chapel…

The funeral of Louis XIV mirrored his reign: grandiose and filled with pathos. Raphaël Pichon has chosen the setting of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, built ‘for the use’ of the Sun King, to present a musical reconstruction of the event, with chiaroscuro lighting designs by Bertrand Couderc. Solemn grands motets like the De profundis and Dies irae of Michel-Richard de Lalande and the poignant Marche funèbre pour le Convoy du Roy by André Danican Philidor are juxtaposed with rarely heard music by Jean Colin, Louis Chein and Charles d’Helfer. An outstanding performance by Pygmalion, filmed on the occasion of the tercentenary of the event, in November 2015.

Ce disque renferme de la musique de circonstance rythmant la vie de la cour de Versailles de Louis XIV à Louis XVI. Les deux compositeurs mis en valeur sont peu connus mais de leur temps étaient les familiers des souverains et les compositeurs des musiques servant à accompagner les chasses, festins, mariages, fêtes, divertissement qui marquaient les temps forts de la vie de Cour.

A portrait of d'Artagnan in the form of a tribute to Alexandre Dumas, illustrated by authentic pieces of music written by Lully and Philidor for the real Musketeers. Trumpets and kettledrums, oboes and side-drums play the favourite marches and trios of the royal regiments in alternation with passages from the novelist's prose. A fascinating meeting between history and fiction.