Yet another fine early music ensemble pops up for the holiday season, courtesy of Analekta. Masques has assembled a charming program of Christmas music from the Baroque period, which of course basically sounds like any other kind of Baroque music, but it's pleasing and spunky nevertheless. The highlights are the two sets of instrumental Noëls by Charpentier and Delalande, which present a festive garland of Christmas tunes in colorful instrumental garb, recorders well to the fore. They are delightful. Schiassi's Concerto for Strings ends with one of those wonderful pastoral numbers, thus establishing its seasonal credentials in the Corellian tradition.
Even by the supremely high production standards of Alpha recordings, this issue is especially splendid. Entitled Versailles, L'ile enchantée, it fully lives up to its name. As directed by Skip Sempé, the widely varied program features music written for Louis XIV's pleasure palace, performed by the Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra with mezzo soprano Guillemette Laurens and bass violist Jay Bernfeld. Each work is superbly selected, and every performance is absolutely idiomatic and wonderfully alive. There is wit and tenderness and elegance and, yes, nobility to their performances, which taken together form as much a portrait of the Sun King as the palace of Versailles itself.
This collection of 17 Scarlatti harpsichord sonatas isn't systematically compiled, but includes the favorites of harpsichordist and scholar Skip Sempé, and it's a diverse and attractive selection. Citing the strong Spanish influences on Scarlatti's writing, Sempé describes "Duende" as a Spanish term that refers to the mysterious power of an event or activity to move a person into a state of sensory overload, or even transcendence.
Vous avez déjà entendu leur voix. Vous connaissez leur nom. Mais qui sont-ils vraiment, ces animateurs qui ont bâti la bande FM du Québec et qui, sur les ondes, égaient notre quotidien? …