Mouvements Un Drame Musical Instantane

Studio Armide represents magnificent documentary film Olivier Simonnet «Marc-Antoine Charpentier, un automne musical à Versailles». Marc-Antoine Charpentier never had an official function at the court of Louis XIV. In 2004 Versailles finally opened its doors to him for the tercentennial commemorations of his death. The finest performers of baroque music, from Jordi Savall to Christophe Rousset, played the most important works of the time in the Royal Chapel opera house, as well as in the chateau salons and galleries: from instrumental music (Lully’s Alceste) to vocal music (Actéon), from lyric tragedy (Médée) to sacred music (Missa assumpta est Maria). The life of this collaborator of Molière’s and cultural life under Louis XIV are enriched by the participation of conductors and musicians.

This is a beautiful, thoughtfully compiled disc. It chronologically charts the life of Jean de La Fontaine, that 17th-century master of the fable, through his own words and through music that sets his text, or that he simply admired. There’s one particular coup: the inclusion of identifiable extracts from the opera by Charpentier that sets a text by La Fontaine. Alas, the whole work did not survive, probably for reasons to do with Lully’s royally granted privilege, but the booklet notes make an excellent case for the association with the opera of the few pieces recorded here.

Un formidable voyage musical à la découverte du Moyen Âge pour les petites oreilles. Un conte musical qui nous plonge dans l'univers de « Célèbre », un enfant aux oreilles exceptionnelles, qui rencontre « la fée Musica ». L'histoire est le fil rouge permettant d'introduire une vingtaine de pièces de chant ou de musique médiévale et de faire découvrir la large palette d'instruments utilisés et leurs sonorités. Le livret propose une approche ludique, illustrée et éditorialisée des différents instruments utilisés à l'époque du Moyen Âge. Une belle façon de faire entrer des enfants, par l'image et la musique, dans l'univers du Moyen Âge.

French violinist Clement Janinet composes music for quartet inspired by the lyricism of the free jazz melodies of the 60s (Ornette Coleman, Phoraoh Sanders, &c.) and the timbral and rhythmic textures of repetitive music (Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, &c) in several quartet configurations including bass clarinet, tenor sax, bass, drums, guitrar, and cello.