Festive days call for a corresponding musical work, and for a lively red wine, what could be better than the Messe de minuit pour Noël (Midnight Mass for Christmas) composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier in 1694. Following the old French tradition for Christmas masses, the work is based on ten French Christmas carols (noëls), which are incorporated into the parts of the Catholic Mass.

The mass was intended for the Jesuit Church, Saint-Louis in Paris, where Charpentier was music director. After the midnight mass, the faithful would return home to celebrate the big family meal until morning, until it was time to wake up, réveil, hence the term ‘réveillon’.

Here we suggest a very beautiful interpretation in a Christmas atmosphere by the leading early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie, who founded the ensemble in 1979 and has been identified with it ever since. An American, born in 1944, and living in France since the 1970s, William Christie contributed like few others to the revival of French Baroque music over the last fifty years, and eventually acquired French citizenship.

Incidentally, the name Les Arts Florissants comes from a work by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It means The Flourishing Arts. This could also include winemaking.