Concert Spirituel

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Concert Spirituel was an 18th-century musical group in Paris, which later lent its name to a seies of concerts in the early 19th century.

The performances were administered by the Academie Royale de Musique, (the Paris Opera) during the Lent period when stage performances were forbidden (hence the title 'spirituel'). Le Concert Spirituel was established in 1725 by Anne Danican Philidor (1681-1731), the brother of the composer and master chess player François-André Danican Philidor (1726-1795). Le Concert Spirituel was the first concert organization in France specializing in the performance of French Grands Motets by such composers as André Campra, Jean-Joseph Mondonville and Jean-Philippe Rameau. Le Concert Spirituel presented their performances in the Salle des Cent Suisses (Hall of Hundred Swiss) in the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris. From 1777 it was directed by Joseph Legros. The premiere of Mozart's Paris Symphony was given at the Concert Spirituel on June 18, 1778. The concerts came to an end in 1790 with the French Revolution.

During the Napoleonic period concerts were occasionally held in Paris under the title 'concert spirituel' but from 1816-1830 these became once again a more-or-less regular feature of the Paris concert calendar. They were admistered as previously by the Opera, and were frequently benefit performances for notable soloists - for example, Charles-Valentin Alkan led one of the three Concerts Spirituels in 1828.

In 1988 Hervé Niquet, a specialist in Baroque music, revived the ename of Le Concert Spirituel in order to perform the repertoire of French music composed in the eighteenth century on ancient instruments.