Organist at the Eglise St Merry in Paris and much sought after as a teacher, Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue was a prolific composer and the spiritual father of that major school of French music whose most illustrious representatives were François Couperin and Nicolas de Grigny. His noëls, inspired by the rich vein of French folklore of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, started the fashion for “Variations sur des Airs Populaires” which were popular at all the main church festivals.

The noëls of Jean-François Dandrieu are miniature French suites. In his desire to celebrate that annual spirit of rejoicing with which we associate Christmas, the composer does not hesitate to introduce the sound of tambourins, galoubets and birdsong, in addition to the more usual oboes, trumpets and cornets.

The happy rival of Rameau in the organ loft at St Paul’s in Paris and the successor of Louis Marchand at the Cordeliers, Louis-Claude Daquin was showered with honours from his earliest youth. An undisputed virtuoso, he was gifted with exceptional dexterity and attracted crowds of listeners who came to acclaim his brilliant improvisations, His Variations sur des Airs de Noëls show us the extraordinary advantage to which he was able to turn these old “timbres”, rewriting them for different registrations.

Claude-Benigne Balbastre was another of the great French organ virtuosos of the end of the eighteenth century. A famous improvisator, he was equally fêted in the salons of the aristocracy. He played every kind of keyboard instrument, passing with equal facility from the organ to the harpsichord and to the fortepiano. The improvisations on noëls which he played at St-Roch were so popular that the Archbishop of Paris was obliged to take steps to prevent unruly scenes and congestion in the streets surrounding the church: Balbastre was forbidden to play the organ at Midnight Mass, so that the organist and his noëls took refuge in the salons, most notably in that of Mm du Deffand.