Siesta Ensemble & Ovidio Gimenez Bassoon Delights

This programme marks the eagerly awaited return of Véronique Gens to Baroque music and Lully, in which she made a name for herself at the start of her career. It presents airs from Atys, Persée, Alceste, Proserpine, Le Triomphe de l’Amour and other works by Louis XIV’s famous composer, but also several by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Médée), Henry Desmarets and Pascal Collasse. Whether well known, rare or in some cases even unpublished, all of them present roles for powerful women whose love is unrequited: dark passions, bitter laments, jealousy, vengeance, the type of dramatic characters that Véronique Gens embodies with all the charisma that has made her reputation. This recording is also the result of an encounter with the youthful ensemble Les Surprises, founded and directed by Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas. Together they conceived this programme, which mingles airs, dances and choruses, in collaboration with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

Black Oak Ensemble, the Chicago-based string trio with an international following, treats listeners to a double-album of stylish and often witty French treasures written between the World Wars.

Was John Coprario taking credit for someone else’s work when, under his own name, he made transcriptions of more than fifty Italian madrigals for a consort of viols? Such an accusation would be based on false premises, as anything resembling copyright was unknown at the beginning of the seventeenth century and for long afterwards; the use of musical material by someone else was rather considered as a respectful examination of ideas that were so promising that one wanted to think them through further. When transcribing these Italian madrigals, Coprario was not only extending an established tradition but also transcending it. He did not simply omit the text in his madrigal fantasias as had been customary in the 16th century, but also took the polyphonic setting even further, enriching it with instrumental possibilities that voices alone could not match. He also rearranged certain parts so that the original vocal work is not always immediately recognisable. Coprario, besides being one of the first to give ensemble music an instrumental identity, was no musical parrot, but an ingenious parodist.

Minas Borboudakis has explored much mythology, philosophy, technology and the natural sciences, and the compositions in this collection reflect this. The CD includes the percussion concerto Archégonon: written for Peter Sadlo, it is a work dealing with “very beginnings”. Also included are two works written for the ensemble spectral: Tetraktys (a string quartet on the number 4) and Krámata (a sextet on alloys).

Inspired by the Psyché created collectively by Lully, Molière, Corneille and Quinault, Locke’s Psyche was a veritable artistic firework display: seeking to vie in splendour with the operas of continental Europe, it luxuriously combined theatre, song, dance, and spectacular machines and scenery. Sébastien Daucé here offers us his splendid reconstruction of this key masterpiece in the history of early English opera.

James Oswald was born in 1710 in the village of Crail in Fife to John Oswald, a town drummer frequently jailed for drunkenness and public swearing, the younger Oswald quickly developed a talent for music. By 1734 he was active as a cellist, dancing master, and composer in Dumferline and Edinburgh. His early works, including a sonata based on Scots tunes, were published under two Italian pseudonyms, “Dothel/Dottel Figlio” and “David Rizzio.” A move to London followed shortly thereafter, where Oswald opened a music shop and became a music publisher in addition to his more creative endeavours.

L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) is often described as the first true opera, with good reason: it is made up of five acts, has a large gallery of characters, a detailed orchestral score specifying some forty instruments and, like so many later operas, its libretto is based on a classical myth. Monteverdi’s work thus becomes a sort of matrix for the entire genre – with one exception: the narrative of this ‘tale in music’ is direct, succinct and to the point.

A highly prolific composer, Giovanni Legrenzi practised his art in oratorios and other works for the church, as well as in opera and chamber music. In fact he explored all the musical genres of his period, taking over the baton handed on by Gabrieli and Monteverdi, and enjoying an enviable reputation among his contemporaries. Better known during his lifetime (1626-1690) for his operas rather than for his religious music, Legrenzi was widely admired and copied all over Europe.