French Viola da gamba and Harpsichord Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: François Couperin, Marin Marais, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Label: Pierre Verany
Magazine Review Date: 9/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 56
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: PV788012
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Sarabande |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Gigue |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Menuet I |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Grand ballet. (Suite in A): (D major): |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Prelude |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Fantaisie |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Allemande |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Courante |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 3 Part 1, Movement: Gavotte La badine |
Marin Marais, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| (L') Art de toucher le clavecin, Movement: Prelude No. 7 in B flat |
François Couperin, Composer
François Couperin, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Livres de clavecin, Book 2, Movement: 6th Ordre (B flat) |
François Couperin, Composer
François Couperin, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
| Diverses pièces |
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Composer
Bruno Re, Viola da gamba Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Composer Robert Kohnen, Harpsichord |
Composer or Director: Marin Marais
Label: Astrée
Magazine Review Date: 9/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 48
Catalogue Number: E7727
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Marche tartate |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: La tartarine |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Double |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Les fêtes champêtres |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Le tourbillon |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Le labyrinthe |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: L'arabesque |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Allemande La superbe |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: La reveuse |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Marche |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Gigue |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
| Pièces de viole, Livre 4 Parts 2 and 3, Movement: Le badinage. (Suite in D): |
Marin Marais, Composer
Hopkinson Smith, Theorbo Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba Marin Marais, Composer Ton Koopman, Harpsichord |
Author:
Jordi Savall's recording of music from Marais's fourth book of pieces de viole is superb: elegant fluent, spirited and evocative. The music is some of Marais's most demanding, technically and musically and Savall is uniquely suited among modern piayers to dispatch his intended unorthodoxies with just the right panache. The choice of a baroque guitar in addition to harpsichord, lending a touch of exoticism, is a stroke of genius—so effective is Hopkinson Smith's playing that I wish it had more often been left to accompany the viol alone.
Savall has extracted 11 contrasting pieces from theSuite d'un gout etranger. The bold and rhetorical ''Marche Tartare'' is coupled with its more delicate counterpart, ''La Tartarine'', the breezy ''Toubillon'' finds its analogue in the peaceful ''Reveuse''. The graceful ''Arabesque'' is perfectly judged and the unpretentious ''Badinage'', infused by Savall with a delicious sense of mystery, provides a perfect epilogue to what is in effect Marais's essay on style. Also included here are the three-movement ''Festes champetre'', with its intimate solo muzette and audacious tambourin, and the well-known Frescobaldian ''Labyrinthe'', in six sections, richly varied in key and character.
The reproduction of the instruments is very realistic, although a disconcerting background noise is occasionally evident in the quiet passages. This is a must equally for connoisseurs and for recent initiates to the charms of the French viol school.
Less compelling is Bruno Re's debut recording of an A minor Suite from Marais's third book (1711) and a G major one from Boismortier's Op. 31 (1730)—neither of which is properly indicated in the booklet or on the box. The Marais is certainly one of his most appealing bijoux suites, but though Re plays solidly his command of French viol ornamentation is uncertain (the cadential trills are not properly accented and his two-finger vibrato—called pince by Marais—is awkwardly executed). He is at his best in the showpieces, the ''Fantaisie'' and the ''Grand ballet'', less comfortable in the more chromatic, rhetorical movements which require a very refined awareness of the constantly changing relationship between harmonic tension and the bow.
Though not a viol player, Boismortier wrote sympathetically for the instrument; the cosmopolitan character of his music in general makes it stylistically more approachable than that of Marais's. But once again the cadential trills are wrongly accented and in the Prelude the long mordents on the initial chords fail to find reflection in subsequent mordents. Re's liberties with the tempos in the rondeaux (''Le Suppliant'' and ''L'Adulateur'') and his interpretation of the sarabande, which is quite removed from the dance further underscore his less-than-complete command of the idiom.
In between, Robert Kohnen contributes a suite of Couperin harpsichord pieces created by attaching the seventh prelude from his treatiseL'art de toucher le clavecin (1716) to his Sixieme Ordre from the second book (1716–17). Though elegant enough, his performance in general is somewhat lacklustre. Both viol and harpsichord are over-recorded: there is far too much breathing and boom.'
Savall has extracted 11 contrasting pieces from the
The reproduction of the instruments is very realistic, although a disconcerting background noise is occasionally evident in the quiet passages. This is a must equally for connoisseurs and for recent initiates to the charms of the French viol school.
Less compelling is Bruno Re's debut recording of an A minor Suite from Marais's third book (1711) and a G major one from Boismortier's Op. 31 (1730)—neither of which is properly indicated in the booklet or on the box. The Marais is certainly one of his most appealing bijoux suites, but though Re plays solidly his command of French viol ornamentation is uncertain (the cadential trills are not properly accented and his two-finger vibrato—called pince by Marais—is awkwardly executed). He is at his best in the showpieces, the ''Fantaisie'' and the ''Grand ballet'', less comfortable in the more chromatic, rhetorical movements which require a very refined awareness of the constantly changing relationship between harmonic tension and the bow.
Though not a viol player, Boismortier wrote sympathetically for the instrument; the cosmopolitan character of his music in general makes it stylistically more approachable than that of Marais's. But once again the cadential trills are wrongly accented and in the Prelude the long mordents on the initial chords fail to find reflection in subsequent mordents. Re's liberties with the tempos in the rondeaux (''Le Suppliant'' and ''L'Adulateur'') and his interpretation of the sarabande, which is quite removed from the dance further underscore his less-than-complete command of the idiom.
In between, Robert Kohnen contributes a suite of Couperin harpsichord pieces created by attaching the seventh prelude from his treatise
French Viola da gamba and Harpsichord Works
Marais Viol music
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