François Martin

Martin Stadtfeld's new double album "Baroque Colours" presents a colorful sound panorama of the Baroque - with original works from Bach to Rameau as well as his own arrangements of well-known Baroque hits and unknown musical gems.

Descendant d'une longue lignée de musiciens, François Couperin fut le plus grand compositeur baroque de son temps. Il représente un jalon important entre Lully et Rameau et, bien que, comparé à d'autres, il ait peu composé, rien dans son oeuvre n'est à écarter. C'est pour les concerts du dimanche matin à la cour du roi Louis XIV, que Couperin composa cette série de Concerts royaux.

Two suites for recorder and basso continuo appear on this volume, a welcome representation of that instrument in the oeuvre of Hotteterre. Performance pitch is A=392, which reflects practice in the France of Hotteterre's day, but more importantly puts the flute down into that wonderfully soft and relaxed timbre which made it such a sensation in the first decades of the 18th century. There are bits and pieces of Hotteterre floating about in the recorded repertoire, but none surpass these performances, and once again.

Three 20th-century orchestral scores, Bartók’s Two Pictures, Debussy’s Jeux and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, all dating from 1910-13 and all linked (as the detailed CD booklet explains), are brought to life in the hands of two exceptional French pianists. The central interest is the ballet Jeux. One of the world’s outstanding Debussy interpreters, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has added to his complete Chandos recordings with his own transcription for two pianos. Written late in Debussy’s life for Nijinsky, Jeux involves an emotionally erotic and harmonically daring game of tennis. Bavouzet and his well-matched partner, François-Fréderic Guy, play with nimble grace, capturing the works wit and mystery. This gripping album is dedicated to Pierre Boulez, guru and enabler, for his 90th birthday.