Playlist audio #9

The CMBV members' playlist, presented by Julien Charbey, Research and Publishing Administrator.

This January, a collective playlist concocted from the favourites of CMBV members. It reflects the diversity of our passions for this repertoire. By turns playful, inspired, tragic, brilliant, virtuoso, contemplative, terrible or meditative, its variety has led us to propose a gentle progression alternating in size and dynamics. Listening to it at random can be a shock, but rearranging the tracks to suit your moods and tastes is an excellent approach to the repertoire.

Grande pièce royale by Michel-Richard de Lalande by the Correspondances ensemble and Sébastien Daucé

A mythical piece from the repertoire, in a mythical corpus of the repertoire, the Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roi. This Grande pièce royale has been restored to its full majesty in five parts. Sébastien Daucé infuses it with supple energy. A real treat, both musically and for the restoration work.

Chaconne by Robert de Visée, by Daniel Zapico

This classic by Robert de Visée showcases the theorbo in an invigorating, highly personal and playful interpretation. The mellowness of the lower strings warmly envelops the supple, assertive melodic line.

Me veux-tu voir mourir trop aimable inhumaine by Antoine Boesset by the ensemble À Deux Violes Esgales with Monique Zanetti

In the first half of the seventeenth century, the air de cour was a laboratory for poets and musicians, in which they portrayed emotions as sensitively as possible. Monique Zanetti captures this spirit with luminous clarity, followed by a double in which her perfectly controlled virtuosity expresses the pain of unrequited love with disarming naturalness. No matter how long we've been working on the air de cour, the magic still works.

Jean-Ferry Rebel's Terpsicore by Jordi Savall and the Concert des Nations

There can be no music without dance, and no dance without music, especially in France. These pieces by Rebel accompanied the birth of ballet-pantomime on the stage of the Royal Academy of Music in the 1730's. Less well known than the Caractères de la Danse or Les Éléments, the Terpsicore, with its clear-cut numbers and under the baton of Jordi Savall, allows us to perfectly imagine the evolution of the dancers on stage.

Forêts paisibles, third entry in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Indes Galantes by the Orfeo Orchestra with Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Jean-Sébastien Bou and the Purcell Choir conducted by György Vashegyi

This excerpt from Les Sauvages, the third entry in Rameau's ballet-heroic Les Indes Galantes, is as well-known as Lully's Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. This new performance, conducted by György Vashegyi, also pays tribute to the collaboration between the CMBV and the Orchestre Orfeo.

Suite for 3 viols in D major by Antoine Forqueray by Kaori Uemura, Jérôme Hantaï, Alix Verzier and Pierre Hantaï

The viola da gamba, the violin's cousin, is one of the essential instruments of Baroque music. Rather than presenting the great classics of the repertoire, here is a rather rare work by Antoine Forqueray, one of the few pieces for three equal viols.

Miserere by Charles-Hubert Gervais by Les Ombres conducted by Sylvain Sartre with Nicholas Scott

The grand motet from Versailles is also one of the emblems of French music. Charles-Hubert Gervais wrote forty-two of them for the royal chapel of Louis XV, after his appointment by the regent Philippe d'Orléans. This performance by Les Ombres, conducted by Sylvain Sartre, does justice to this inspired work.

Prelude by Michel Richard de Lalande by Myriam Rignol, Julie Dessaint and Mathilde Vialle

This prelude by the great Michel-Richard de Lalande comes from a singular corpus, related to the Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roi: the "Petits concerts qui se font les soirs devant Sa Majesté". Less solemn, it belongs to the repertoire of Court sociability, one might even say of the King when he visited Mme de Maintenon's flats. Compiled at the end of the reign, these suites exude a certain nostalgia, inviting us to daydream and relax.

Violin Concerto Op. XII No. 1 by Jean-Baptiste Quentin by Johannes Pramsohler and the Ensemble Diderot

Quentin is a brilliant, yet undiscovered, example of the French violin school. Johannes Pramsohler has recorded a number of masterpieces by this forgotten master. This is the mission he has set himself, with his Diderot ensemble, to rediscover the birth of the sonata and the concerto in France.

Suite in D by Étienne Richard by Fabien Armengaud

These pieces predate the golden age of the harpsichord in France. But they may well have been at the origin of it, since this composer was Louis XIV's harpsichord teacher. Fabien Armengaud sensitively brings this work back to life.

Mondonville's Dominus regnavit by Les Arts Florissants

A classic of the grand motet. The porosity between sacred and secular music is magnificently illustrated here. The agitation of the strings and the 'rockets', the rapid ascending and descending scales typically used in opera for storm scenes, evoke here the rising waters of the rivers.

Violin Concerto Op.X No.5 by Jean-Marie Leclair by Leila Schayegh and La Certa Barockorchester Basel

The French violin school is represented here by the man considered to be its creator, Jean-Marie Leclair, the 'Angel', in the face of Locatelli's demonic playing. Leila Schayegh recently recorded a very fine complete work, a project she had set her heart on after discovering the composer at the CMBV's Grandes Journées in 2005!

Surge Propera by Joseph Valette de Montigny by the Antiphona Ensemble conducted by Rolandas Muleika with Pierre Perny

Valette de Montigny is one of the great composers who did not work at the French Court. Born in the south-west of France, he ended his career at the Saint-Seurin choir school in Bordeaux. He was one of the composers cherished by musicologist Benoît Michel when he was working on noëls for large choirs. This fine CD by Rolandas Muleika and his ensemble Antiphona brings this music to the fore.

Polydore by Jean-Baptiste Stuck with the Orfeo Orchestra, conducted by György Vashegyi with Cyrille Dubois, Hélène Guilmette, David Witczak, Thomas Dolié and the Purcell Choir

Stuck and Pellegrin's Polydore is a dark lyrical tragedy. Refined writing, beautiful arias, and a storm that nods to Mondonville. Sensitive souls, beware of the final aria! A special treat for the Régent's much-loved musicians, and for the discoveries made during the partnership with György Vashegyi.