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The result of patient restoration work, this programme of carols gains the light and freshness of original, inspired rereadings by Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien and La Maîtrise de Radio France. François Lazarevitch went back to the sources assimilated by Charpentier, Delalande and Corrette to reconstruct the original texts and melodies of their Yuletide works. At the same time, he sought to revive the texture of patois and regional accents, the multicoloured nuances of the pastoral character from which flutes, oboes and musette rise to the surface; the cadenced phrasing and inventive ornamentation recalling a first life as dancing or drinking songs. "Since the dawn of Christianity, Christmas has been celebrated with festive singing. In the Baroque era, numerous composers ... created masterpieces out of these simple tunes. When Sofi Jeannin told me of her wish to get her Maîtrise choir to sing Christmas music, I was delighted. For a long time I had been gathering French sources of the 17th and 18th centuries with the intention of working on Baroque carol arrangements with Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien. I wanted to create something quite different from what had been done before, by treating this repertoire with proper respect: being faithful to the old sources, yet reworking the musical material to make our own personal version. The different languages, regional dialects and accents illustrate the extraordinary diversity and cultural richness of France, as well as of New France at that historical period." - François Lazarevitch