Est 1923

Rameau Orchestral Suites, Volume 2

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Jean-Philippe Rameau

Label: Naxos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 51

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 8 553746

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Anacréon Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Daphnis et Eglé Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
This is the second in a two-volume anthology of orchestral suites by Rameau, played by Capella Savaria under the direction of the Hungarian scholar of the French baroque, Mary Terey-Smith. I reviewed the earlier disc, containing suites from Les Boreades and La naissance d’Osiris, in April, and find that what I said there applies very largely to the present release. Capella Savaria are a period-instrument band who have vastly improved in technical fluency and, consequently, homogeneity of sound over the past 15 or so years. These discs of Rameau are as enjoyable as any I have heard by them; but he’s a composer who really puts his wind players on the spot and it is in this department that I sensed the greatest weakness. Intonation is sometimes a problem, but there are, too, occasions when technique is stretched to a point whereby the smooth articulation of phrases is put in jeopardy. They are, admittedly, details in performances which I find, for the most part, refreshing and enjoyable; yet when placed beside the technical and interpretative excellence of Les Talens Lyriques, whose recording of overtures by Rameau is reviewed above, such considerations appear far from negligible.
Having said as much, there is plenty to enjoy in both Naxos releases. In respect of each disc, furthermore, there is one consideration of great importance to ardent connoisseurs of Rameau’s music, that being the inclusion of overtures and dances which cannot be found elsewhere on disc. On the first CD it is La naissance d’Osiris that provides the rarity; on the new disc both the Anacreon and Daphnis et Egle suites are new to the catalogue. The Anacreon music, incidentally, has nothing to do with Rameau’s one-act ballet of the same name but is taken from an entirely separate work performed at Fontainebleau in 1754, three years before the other. There are, it hardly needs to be said, some wonderfully spirited and distinctively coloured movements in both suites; but the best of them are to be found, perhaps in the Anacreon sequence. It includes an opening “Ritournelle”, which originally led into the first scene but here returns to the opening in order to provide an instrumental conclusion, and a pair of captivating “Tambourins”.
All in all, then, a stimulating and immediately attractive programme, stylishly if unevenly played, and well worth an encounter.'

Rameau Orchestral Suites, Volume 2

Anacréon

Daphnis et Eglé

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