Roy Ellefsen wrote:

>I recently acquired the film score music to Tous Les Matins du Monde.  The
>disc includes music by Jean-Baptiste Lully which I find very attractive.
>I have known Lully's name for years which I vaguely associated with the
>Baroque period and French Kings Louis IV+, Versaille, and all that.  I'd
>like to investigate Lully further, but money always being scarce, I wonder
>if anyone out there can recommend to me some Lully recordings of particular
>note.

The music in the movie is the Marche pour la Ceremonie des Turcs,
from the Comedie-ballet "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme", which Lully did
in collaboration with Moliere.  A nice intro to his music is a disk of
Lully/Moliere Comedies-Ballets selections, done by Les Musiciens du Louvre
under the direction of Marc Minkowski, on Erato.  It includes a scene from
Bourgeois Gentilhomme, with Minkowski's version of this Marche.  Some of
the other scenes are quite amusing, even to a non-French speaker like me.
Their style is perhaps a reminder that Lully started life at the French
court as a kitchen boy from Italy, and was an actor/dancer as well.

However, this disk is a sort of bonbon compared to the main output
for which Lully is remembered, his operas.  After all, it was Lully who,
with the approval and encouragement of Louis XIV, established the French
operatic style in the 17th century, a style which was closely associated
with him (including the form of the so-called "French Ouverture" which was
used by so many Baroque composers right up to Bach and Handel).  It wasn't
until Rameau began to write his operas in the 1730s that the Lullian model
was allowed to evolve somewhat, though not without a lot of controversy at
first from the "Lully-istes"(sic).

That said, the recordings available of his operas are an essential part
of understanding Lully's output, something which I confess I am still
short of doing.  However, any of the operas recorded by William Christie
and his Les Arts Florissants are to be recommended, especially the one
of "Atys".  I believe Minkowski has also started to record some of the
operas, but I have not heard any of these.

Another major aspect of Lully's works are his sacred pieces, his Motets,
both "Grand" and "Petite".  For the latter, I am only familiar with
a recording on Harmonia Mundi by Christie/LAF, which is quite lovely.
A series of recordings of the Lully Grands Motets has been done by Le
Concert Spirituel under Herve Niquet on the French label FNAC; I am not
sure how available these are at present.  Works such as the Te Deum and
the Miserere are justly famous, and Niquet (despite some rather fleet
tempi) brings out the grandly unique sound world that Lully helped to
establish.

Philip Herreweghe has recordings out of both some selected operas and
Grands Motets.  I've not heard these, but if his usual standards apply,
they should definitely be worth a listen.

Hope this will be of help.
Bill H.