Jean Pierre Rampal

Jean-François Paillard leads his chamber orchestra in this reference recording of Couperin's "Les Nations". "Les Nations" is a vast project in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe – France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont – and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata with its free-form virtuosity and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite.

Johann Sebastian Bach - 6 Brandenburg Concertos - Jean-Francois Paillard (1974) {Erato-Warner Classics 0825646138654 rel 2015}
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© 1974, 2015 Erato / Warner Classics | 0825646138654
Classical / Baroque / Concerto

Released in 1974, this 2-LP set devoted to the 6 Brandenburg Concertos supplanted the old Erato reference by Kurt Redel – the stereophonic version of 1962. It remains precious testimony to the art of Jean-François Paillard, a musician who assuredly deserves to be re-evaluated, like Louis Auriacombe, who had, with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, made magnificent recordings devoted to 18th-century music for Le Club Français du Disque. With their intimate chamber tone, these Bach recordings celebrated the 20th anniversary of Erato (founded in 1953) and also remain an example of the achievement of a performing aesthetic that has now become marginal.

Conductor and musicologist Jean-François Paillard was one of the most visible French exponents of Baroque music from the 1960s onward. Paillard earned a degree in mathematics from the Sorbonne, but he turned to music soon after. He attended the Paris Conservatory as a musicology student, where he won first prize in music history; he later studied conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Igor Markevitch. He formed the Ensemble Jean-Marie Leclair in 1952, which was renamed the Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra the following year. Comprised of a dozen string players and a harpsichord, the group paralleled such small-scale English ensembles as the Boyd Neel Orchestra in performing Baroque-era works - especially those from France - as well as contemporary works for string orchestra. As the public's interest in Baroque music rose, the orchestra's popularity grew and was aided by a series of international tours covering dozens of countries.

This reissue drags Jean Cohen-Solal's two solo albums out of oblivion in style. It puts both his 1971 LP, Flûtes Libres, and his 1973 LP, Captain Tarthopom, on a single CD, adding a brand new seven-minute piece ('Quelqu'un 2003') to round things up. The music belongs to the more experimental end of early progressive rock, drawing from classical and psychedelic music, with hints of Krautrock. Then again, much like other French artists from that period like Jacques Berrocal or Fille Qui Mousse, Cohen-Solal's music defies categorization. Friendlier than those artists' because of its heavier reliance on melody, it gets its uniqueness from the instrumentation. Besides being a skilled flutist, Cohen-Solal also plays organ, piano, and double bass…