D. Gaultier Rhétorique des Dieux
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Denis Gaultier
Label: Accord
Magazine Review Date: 6/1990
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 110
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 20070-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Rhétorique des Dieux |
Denis Gaultier, Composer
Denis Gaultier, Composer Louis Pernot, Lute |
Author: John Duarte
Denis Gaultier (c. 1600-72) was perhaps the greatest lutenist of his time, though he is not known to have held any official post. La rhetorique des dieux is the title he gave to a collection of 56 of his pieces, adorned with paintings by Le Sueur—commissioned by his wealthy, art-loving patron Anne de Chambre, who also retitled some of the pieces, more in accord with her own imagination than Gaultier's. It was not only as a lutenist that Gaultier was important: he was (a leading) one of the French lutenists of the time, whose innovations were adopted and developed by harpsichordists.
The pieces are grouped by key (the birth of the French suite) and many carry fanciful titles with personal or mythological connections (foreshadows of Rameau, Couperinet al.); the profuse ornaments that were familiar in French baroque harpsichord music were, too, born under the fingers of these same lutenists, and though La rhetorique contains no ornament signs they may be recovered by cross-comparison with other sources. The tuning of the baroque lute naturally favours minor keys; the abnormally high proportion of major keys, the more natural to the renaissance lute, in the collection is attributed to Anne de Chambres' old-fashioned predilection for them.
Hopkinson Smith recorded three of the suites about 14 years ago for Telefunken (nla), but Pernot is the first to have presented them in their entirety. After a shaky start, with some unpleasingly wiry sounds, he settles down to some stylish and often spirited performances, recorded with a fidelity that is merciless on the slightest misfeasance—and, this being difficult music to play, there are a few of these. Few will opt for almost two hours of this fine but intimate music in the monochrome of the lute's sound—this is an 'archive', to be sampled rather than heard non-stop. The annotation is exceptionally thorough, but to read that Bach ''himself played the lute and wrote for the intrument'' is to experience a musicological time-warp.
'
The pieces are grouped by key (the birth of the French suite) and many carry fanciful titles with personal or mythological connections (foreshadows of Rameau, Couperin
Hopkinson Smith recorded three of the suites about 14 years ago for Telefunken (nla), but Pernot is the first to have presented them in their entirety. After a shaky start, with some unpleasingly wiry sounds, he settles down to some stylish and often spirited performances, recorded with a fidelity that is merciless on the slightest misfeasance—and, this being difficult music to play, there are a few of these. Few will opt for almost two hours of this fine but intimate music in the monochrome of the lute's sound—this is an 'archive', to be sampled rather than heard non-stop. The annotation is exceptionally thorough, but to read that Bach ''himself played the lute and wrote for the intrument'' is to experience a musicological time-warp.
'
D. Gaultier Rhétorique des Dieux
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