Santillo. La Petite Mort

If you cannot imagine what Bach's five great motets would sound like as chamber music, this disc by La Petite Bande will provide an answer: they sound fabulous. With eight singers, five string players, and four wind players plus continuo, La Petite Bande's performances sound absolutely clear – even in the densest textures, every line is ideally balanced – incredibly colorful – the combinations of voices, strings, winds, and organ seem endlessly subtle – and, best of all, unbelievably expressive. Everyone's a soloist and every line is a melody, thereby making Bach's music seem more personal and intimate than usual. Of course, part of the reason for this is that most recordings of the motets, whether a cappella or accompanied, are arguably too big and heavy. With four or more singers on a part, this kind of weightiness is virtually inevitable – but with two singers to a part, the performances can be as expressive as the music director will allow. And with music director Sigiswald Kuijken also being the first violinist, the performances are supremely expressive.

This two-CD album brings together the two earliest recordings by La Petite Bande. They were made in 1973 and feature landmarks in two important French forms of entertainment—comedie-ballet and opera-ballet. Performed in 1670 at Chambord, one of Louis XIV's grandest country retreats, Le bourgeois gentilhomme was the high water mark of Lully's collaboration with Moliere and was to be the last work of its kind on which the two worked together. Moliere developed the comedie-ballet from the fashionable court ballets, working the dances and music into the body of the play with unparalleled skill. Lully, himself a dancer, proved a gifted partner as the music for Le bourgeois gentilhomme reveals.

La Petite Bande recorded its set during the late 1970s and these are performances which do considerable justice to the music. Brisker tempos, lighter bass string playing and an altogether more imaginative approach to continuo realization bring these concertos alive to an extent hardly realised by I Musici. Sigiswald Kuijken, the leader and director of La Petite Bande, includes a theorbo in his continuo group and this is invariably an effective addition. Both sets field a secure and lively concertino group of two violins, cello and continuo but listeners may well find that the warmer sound and greater degree of finesse provided by the concertino of I Musici is more to their liking than the thinner, wirier textures of the other. Having said that, I should add that in matters of baroque style, as in its more highly developed spirit of fantasy, La Petite Bande offers far and away the more satisfying performances.

This two-CD album brings together the two earliest recordings by La Petite Bande. They were made in 1973 and feature landmarks in two important French forms of entertainment—comedie-ballet and opera-ballet. Performed in 1670 at Chambord, one of Louis XIV's grandest country retreats, Le bourgeois gentilhomme was the high water mark of Lully's collaboration with Moliere and was to be the last work of its kind on which the two worked together. Moliere developed the comedie-ballet from the fashionable court ballets, working the dances and music into the body of the play with unparalleled skill. Lully, himself a dancer, proved a gifted partner as the music for Le bourgeois gentilhomme reveals.

Neuer Blickwinkel Sigiswald Kuijken präsentiert mit La Petite Bande erneut eine Einspielung, die dank fundierter Recherche einen neuen Blick auf scheinbar altbekannte Musik bietet: Er führt diese Werke nämlich in einer reinen Quartett-Besetzung (zwei Violinen, Viola und Kontrabass) auf. Für Kuijken vermittelt diese Ausführung viel eher die lebendige, direkte Essenz dieser Musik als ein Kammerorchester. Mit dem Menuett KV 601 Nr. 3 bietet er zudem einen adäquaten Ersatz für den früh verlorengegangenen zweiten Satz der Serenade. Obwohl fünfzehn Jahre früher entstanden ergänzen die Divertimenti KV 136-138 hinsichtlich Besetzung, Leichtigkeit und Eingängigkeit Mozarts Eine kleine Nachtmusik von 1787 wunderbar.

A hit in its first run in 1726, in London and elsewhere, Alessandro has had less success in our day. It is a demanding and lengthy work. The story moves quickly and is fairly silly, and meant to be. This Alexander conquers Ossidraca during the overture, but manages to bungle his subsequent amatory assaults, which constitute the rest of the opera. All manages to end well for him in the nick of time, however, as a good lieto fine requires. The performance takes just over three hours, though Bernd Feuchtner, the author of the notes, claims that London audiences in 1726 were in the theater for five.