Jul Dans L'rs3

Influenced by dance, theater, and the fine arts, composer/clarinetist Louis Sclavis once again illustrates his increasing relevance to modern music thanks to this impressive 2002 effort. With his fifth outing for ECM Records, Sclavis continues his path of artistic excellence. This is a soundtrack for a recently exhumed French silent movie, though viewing the film shouldn't necessarily be a prerequisite for letting one's imagination delve into the visual aspects of this reconditioned antique. On this release, the clarinetist utilizes a dual string section to complement accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier's Parisian cabaret-type musings amid the quintet's shrewd instillation of movement.

Around the start of the seventeenth century musical style in Europe underwent a remarkable transformation. During the first decades of the Baroque era, instrumental music underwent a deep transformation, the violin being central in the process. Composers, who were themselves violinists, expanded the technical limits of the instrument, developing a form of virtuosity with the bow that was very swiftly followed by an improvement of left-hand technique. The music for three violins and bass selected for this recording is typical of a XVIIth Century genre which disappeared rather quickly afterwards, although some remarkable works were still to be composed during the XVIIIth century. This selection, which borrows this repertoire to many different European countries, presents some of the most delighful Sonata's, ballets, chaconnes, fantasias, sinfonias and canon written.

Skip Sempé is a world-renowned virtuoso harpsichord player, ensemble conductor, and the founder of the early music group Capriccio Stravagante. He has won acclaim as a solo harpsichord player with a striking control over the often inflexible tone of the instrument and as an authoritative and stylish interpreter of Baroque-era continuo realizations from figured bass.