Cyril Amenti's Coin

Orfano fin dall’età di cinque anni, Félicien David cominciò la sua formazione nella cantoria della cattedrale di Aix-en-Provence prima di iscriversi al Conservatorio nel 1830. Qui frequenta le classi di Millault (armonia), Fétis (contrappunto) e Benoist (organo), seguendo contemporaneamente l’insegnamento di Reber. Periodo di breve durata tuttavia, poiché già nel 1831 abbandona l’istituzione senza aver ottenuto alcun premio e aderisce, sotto l’influsso del pittore Pol Justus, alla comunità saint-simoniana, della quale diventa il compositore ufficiale.

Born into a long line of musicians, some of whom officiated at the court of Versailles, Boëly was first taught from the age of five by his father, a countertenor at the Sainte-Chapelle who was also a composer, teacher and author of a treatise on harmony influenced by Rameau. In 1796, he entered the Paris Conservatoire to study under Guérillot (violin) and Ladurner (piano), who introduced him to Bach, Haydn and Clementi. His formal education was of short duration, however, since he was forced to leave the conservatory in 1800. From then on, he taught himself, reading the old masters to cultivate his personal tastes and develop his style, which was out of sync with that of the audiences of his time who preferred patriotic or Italian works to his overly classicist offerings.

Vivaldi wrote an astonishing 500 concertos during his lifetime, of which 27 were composed for solo cello. At the time, the instrument was in its infancy, and it was unusual for great composers to write works specifically for solo cello. Indeed, none of the concertos were published during Vivaldi’s lifetime: they had been written specially for his young female students at the Ospedale della Pietà, where the composer was employed in Venice, and were therefore not widely known. However, Vivaldi clearly saw the potential in the new instrument, otherwise he would not have gone on to write so much material for it; after the violin and bassoon, it is his third most popular solo concerto instrument.

This is an attractive programme of comparatively rare vocal repertoire. Airs de cour by Charpentier (including verses from Corneille’s Le Cid) and Lambert are interpersed with instrumental movements from Couperin’s Les Nations. Cyril Auvity is an experienced advocate of the haute-contre repertoire and draws on all that experience to engage fully with the texts of these miniature dramas. His tone in the higher register can verge on the harsh, though this is a rare event.