The suites and pieces for two bass viols by Marin Marais are among the gems of the French baroque repertory: beautifully crafted polyphonic textures and rich, though never quirky, harmony spun out in affecting sequences with apposite ornamentation. We are used to hearing a certain spectrum of performance styles, from the most personal to the sublime. But now the Smithsonian Chamber Players (attached to the Smithsonian Institute, in Washington) bring a fresh and not unwelcome quality of robustness to the music and in spite of the diverseness of their backgrounds, the players—one American and one Nether- landish viol player, and a German theorbist—cleave together, even breathing as one, in a remarkable display of ensemble playing.
For this CD they chose two suites from Marais's First Book of Pieces de violes (1686) and the monumental ''Tombeau de M Meliton'', superb examples of their genre which appeared near the beginning of the tradition (in publishing terms) rather than at the height of its popularity. Each of the suites has a finely elaborated core of prelude and four dances, to which are added lighter-weight gavottes, menuets and character pieces. The preludes and sarabandes are the most poetic, the allemandes outgoing, courantes rhythmically intricate and gigues most flowing. The powerful, heartfelt rhetoric of the tombeau is surely unsurpassed in the repertory.
The Smithsonian Chamber Players capture all these attributes and more. They show an enviable mastery of gesture and phrase; the viol players' control of melodic and harmonic tension with their bows, together with Junghanel's acute sense of timing, results in performances of breadth and cohesion. Perhaps their enthusiasm occasionally verges on a new kind of preciosity. But these are vital performances, richly caught by the engineers (one practically feels as though one is playing!), and they are certain to give lasting pleasure to those who acquire them.'