New York City-based viola da gambist Caroline Nicolas is one to watch - a captivating performer and "one of the finest gambists working today" (Gotham Early Music Scene). With her star rapidly in the ascendent, Caroline has performed with ensembles including The English Concert, Kammerorchester Basel, and Philharmonia Baroque, and collaborated with the likes of Jordi Savall, William Christie, and Kristian Bezuidenhout.
For her solo debut recording, Caroline brings out the big guns of the viola da gamba repertoire from France's defining era of the instrument - the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Pièces de viole were integral to the French instrumental baroque, and Caroline's programme leads with selections by the master of the genre, Marin Marais. For contrast, Caroline juxtaposes the first Suite by the iconoclastic Antoine Forqueray, and in between offers a pair of amuse-bouche: an intricate Chaconne by Marais' tutor, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, and a Prelude by the pedagogue Le Sieur de Machy. In keeping with French viol music's nuance and relative restraint, Caroline is accompanied solely by theorbo, it's complementary timbre reflecting the repertoire's aesthetic.
Through the Mirror of Sound - A Journey into Wonderland or "Down the Rabbit Hole of Sound" A musical and introspective journey into "Wonderland" - a place as beautiful as it is uncanny, where the laws of nature no longer apply. Inspired by the classic Alice in Wonderland, Maddalena Del Gobbo embarks on a sonic voyage of discovery into a world where nothing is as it seems. Confusion and despair linger at every turn - and yet, hope remains. Despite all uncertainty and dramatic twists, everything ultimately falls into place, for in the end, goodness proves stronger. The program spans four centuries of music - from Tobias Hume (around 1600) to contemporary compositions - drawing a fascinating arc through time and space.
In Baroque works, everything had it's meaning: The shapes and proportions of musical works often did not come about by chance, but were based on symbolically charged numbers - whether from geometry, mythology or architecture. Bach was a great friend of this numerical symbolism, and his colleagues Barriere, Forqueray and Couperin also often had hidden extra-musical interpretive levels. This new release from Wunderkammer explores these composers and the symbolism they tucked into their compositions. Wunderkammer is an ensemble founded by Sarah Perl, Mira Lange, Martin Seemann and Peter Uehling in Berlin. With infinite curiosity and the building blocks of inspiration, knowledge, and affection, Wunderkammer sets out to further explore the music of the baroque and thus preserve it for us all. With their instruments harpsichord/organ, cello, and viola da gamba, they form a stable basis for bringing the music of the 17th and 18th centuries to chamber music.
Jos Van Immerseel returns to chamber music and the accompaniment of young talents, two absolute priorities for him. In Chouchane Siranossian he has found a worthy partner, as gifted on the modern violin as she is on the Baroque instrument, a pupil of Tibor Varga, then of Zakhar Bron, as well as a disciple of Reinhard Goebel, whose first recording, on the Oehms label, attracted great attention (winning a ‘Diapason Découverte’). Here it is the Baroque violinist who engages in dialogue with the harpsichord of Jos Van Immerseel in a Franco-Italian program juxtaposing the music of the ‘Angel’ Leclair and the ‘Devil’ Locatelli, not forgetting Tartini’s famous ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata . . . Indeed, all this music is ‘devilishly’ difficult to play, but the Franco-Armenian violinist shows perfect mastery of it, combined with great inventiveness.
No one has surpassed Marais: only one has equalled him, and that is the famous Forqueray: with these words, in 1752, a contemporary praised one of the last great virtuosos of the viola da gamba. Known for his formidably difficult and technical musical style, Forqueray's world is nonetheless immensely rich: through the works of the father Antoine, his son Jean-Baptiste and his nephew Nicolas-Gilles, an august lineage emerges whose grace and genius never ceased to inspire. At times proud, even bellicose, at other times deeply tender, the viol pieces by this Forqueray family plunge us into a flight of expressions of passions whose vivacity is equalled only by their intensity. Myriam Rignol, as a distant granddaughter, accompanied by her exquisite Timbres, delivers in this complete work a powerful homage to these 18th-century chamber music icons who, in their image, could never be anything other than virtuoso.
Couperin, Dornel, Forqueray, Rebel: Portraits: Les caractères français / {oh!}
DUX
CD
$21.99Feb 04, 2022
Artistic salons had begun thriving in Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Their history started in the early seventeenth century with Madame de Rambouillet’s Chambre bleue, which offered its regulars a lively exchange of views on current events in politics, the arts and science, while also serving as a venue for conversations on “love, friendship, a sense of duty, reputation, virtue and taste.” Music was an inseparable element of salon life. It was performed by both high-caliber artists and amateurs, and was the subject of heated debates, controversies and polemics. A gradual return of life to Paris, and the fresh breath of freedom that characterized the final years of the reign of Louis XIV and the ensuing period of regency in particular had created an environment, in which French composers opened themselves up to the music of various nations. The present release features chamber works by Jean-Fery Rebel, Antoine Forqueray, Louis-Antoine Dornel, and Francois Couperin, performed by the {oh!} trio.
Un Air d’italie - The Mandolin in Paris in the 18th Century / Schivazappa
Arcana
CD
$20.99Oct 20, 2023
As an instrument from Italy, one that was exotic and evocative of Mediterranean atmospheres, the mandolin was very much in fashion in France until the end of the Century of Enlightenment: a fact also confirmed by many iconographic and musical sources. Pizzicar Galante, an ensemble that stands today as a benchmark for the interpretation of the galant literature for mandolin and continuo, has been acclaimed for the “finesse, creativity and spirit” (Olivier Fourés, Diapason) and “communicative energy” of its performances (Sébastien Llinares, France Musique).
For its second recording with Arcana, it offers a compilation of the finest music played during the veritable “golden age” enjoyed by the mandolin in Paris from the 1760s to the Revolution. It is a rare and unexplored repertoire in which the dazzling virtuosity of Anna Schivazappa, a specialist in historical mandolins, dialogues with the beguiling and charismatic voice of Marc Mauillon.
Forqueray: Pieces de viole mises & Pieces de clavecin / Rannou
Alpha
CD
$11.99Sep 30, 2016
After the success of the first fourteen reissues, which restored to the limelight some of the gems of the early music repertory in the catalogues of our labels, here are fourteen new titles to allow listeners to renew acquaintance with further treasures of the Renaissance and Baroque (and even a journey through time thanks to Raphaël Imbert’s album Bach Coltrane), performed by some of the leading interpreters of the genre; most of these discs won one or more awards on their first release. As with the first series, the artists have been asked to contribute to the booklets, in which, with a few years’ hindsight, they talk about their conception of the works and how they went about recording them. The photographers of the Magnum agency illustrate the covers of the series with their work; this time the common design element is the colour yellow.In addition to the 13 titles shown below, the album FIRENZE 161 by LE POEME HARMONIQUE, VINCENT DUMESTRE, will also be reissued.
