Heinrich Biber was a giant of the Baroque violin. Just as the electric guitar has become the instrument of "the people" during the late 20th century, so the violin was for the Baroque period. The older family of viols was a mainstay of the aristocracy, while the lighter and louder violin came to embody the voice of the people, and subsequently of the courts. Heinrich Biber was Austrian, but was inspired by the Italian style of fantastic, wild improvisatory playing, and had a lifestyle to match.
Finally together on disc, here are the expressive gambists of Les Voix Humaines and the eloquent breath of Baroque flutist Barthold Kuijken, accompanied by the harpsichordist Eric Milnes. In an array of works by Telemann exploring the French and Italian 'mixed style' adopted by the Germans, and the galant style, these artists perform in turn fantaisies for solo traverso, duets for two gambas, a sonata for traverso and continuo, a sonata for traverso, gamba, and continuo, and the rare instrumental combination of the two quadros for traverso, two gambas, and continuo.
This disc is the debut entry in a full cycle of Bach's cantatas to come from Canada's Montreal Baroque historical performance ensemble. Conductor Eric Milnes opts for the controversial approach of having just one voice per part – the four soloists, joined together – in the choral movements, with no choir in sight.
One of the most popular of the Nativity cantatas is certainly No. 122, performed the Sunday after Christmas, “The new-born baby,” with its motet-like opening chorus and flavored orchestral ritornellos that underline its pastoral nature. The recitative with three recorders playing the choir of angels is one of the most unusual and touching moments in all of Bach. No. 61, “Now come, Savior of the heathens” is an early Weimar cantata, dating from 1714, where the opening chorale is placed in the context of a French overture, its processional feeling perfectly suited to the first Sunday of Advent. Bach even submitted this work as an examination piece for the post of Cantor at the Thomas School; it was rejected as too theatrical.
For her first solo album with ATMA Classique, the celebrated Canadian soprano Hélène Brunet has chosen baroque and classical arias that have always been part of her life and for which she feels a deep affinity. Under the direction of Eric Milnes, the period ensemble L'Harmonie des saisons accompanies her in this program featuring music by Bach Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart and Leonardo Vinci, whose two arias are recorded here as world premieres. I remember being completely enamored, at fifteen, with Vivaldis famous aria Nulla in mundo pax sincera, attempting head voice singing for the first time and discovering the peculiar lightheaded effects of this new vocal technique.
From his great oratorios we know Handel as a master of epic grandeur and dramatic majesty. The pastoral masque Acis and Galatea (1718) shows another side to the composer, one of transparent lightness, refined sensuality, and tenderness. Yet whatever the means he employs to his ends, we are ever awed and elated by the unshakable generosity of this great European musician. A brilliant cast of singers and the award-winning Boréades ensemble team up in this fresh look at an early Handel masterwork.
“The flute speaks, it touches, it dazzles as if it had been revealed to mankind on a glorious day of creation.” – Raymond Meylan, La flûte. Inspired by the French repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, flutist Anne Thivierge has chosen to highlight works for flute and continuo by François Couperin, Michel Blavet, Marin Marais, and Jean-Marie Leclair. Gambist Mélisande Corriveau and harpsichordist Eric Milnes accompany her on this French Baroque journey.
One might be forgiven for thinking Beatles Baroque III by Les Boréades would actually sound Baroque, as it and two previous volumes are billed, but such is not the case. Even though this Canadian early music ensemble has impressive credentials, and plays the repertoire from Frescobaldi to C.P.E. Bach with aplomb, its performances on this disc are overwhelmingly modern in feeling and not too far removed from the actual music produced by the Beatles and George Martin in the 1960s.