Christie's musicians are in particularly fine form, injecting the choral textures with supple rhythmic vigour and declaiming the solos with clarity and warmth.

If Henry Desmarest hasn't yet joined other French Baroque composers among the ranks of the Great Rediscovered, here's a disc which ought to help him on his way. These three grands motets were composed between 1708 and 1715, the early years of his time as musical director to the court of the Duke of Lorraine. Scored for soloists, choir and orchestra, each is a multi-sectional psalm-setting lasting about 20 minutes. What's immediately striking isn't only how strong-boned and well-written the music is, but also how contrasted; here are moments of supreme tenderness, powerful intensity, robust grandeur and uplifting rhythmic vigour. And if a tendency towards melancholy is unsurprising given that two of these psalm-texts are penitential, who's to say that we aren't also witnessing a reflection of the unhappy circumstances of this composer's life? Such music couldn't have fallen into better hands than Christie's. His talent is to see the work as a totality, with the result that the music never fails to punch its full expressive weight.
With Sophie Daneman and Paul Agnew excellent among the soloists, and choral singing which remains unfailingly vivid and alert throughout, these are vibrant performances that don't put a foot wrong. The recording is clear and nicely balanced, though an unusual profusion of extraneous noises is an irritant. Even so, this is a must-buy for French Baroque fans.