Les Snorky

J.S. Bach’s son Johann Christian arrived in London in 1762, and with his fellow composer Carl Friedrich Abel established a series of prestigious concerts that ran for 17 years. Music heard at the Bach-Abel recitals is surveyed on this intriguing album by the Swiss ensemble Les Ombres. The sprightly Quartet in D Major by J.C. Bach, two pensive pieces for bass viol by Abel, and a charmingly Mozartian Harpsichord Quintet by Johann Samuel Schröter are among the highlights, and three of Haydn’s numerous arrangements of Scottish songs are brightly sung by mezzo-soprano Fiona McGown. Les Ombres play on period instruments, imparting an extra tang to this fascinating slice of aural history.

It's possible to recreate everything about an eighteenth century opera except the audience,’ says director Robert Carsen in a documentary included with this DVD. ‘My work is for modern audiences.’ And how…In this brilliant production, Carsen goes to the heart of the drama…Michael Levine's stylised, bold designs allow the story to unfold with gripping clarity and, remarkably, some of the spectacular set-pieces (especially the storm in Act III) work even better on DVD than in the theatre itself. Barbara Bonney is vocally and dramatically stunning as Alphise…Conductor William Christie responds to Rameau's varied and colourful score with élan, and Édouard Lock's choreography – a version of classical ballet deconstructed and then pumped with amphetamines – is breathtaking.

Written at the request of Louis XIV in honor of his sister-in-law, Henrietta of England, Lully's Le Ballet royal de la naissance de Vénus was performed in 1665 with Henrietta herself as the goddess of love and youth. This grandiose spectacle combining dancing, music and poetry, served the power of the king, while attesting to the magnificence of his court. Musically very inventive, it shows the culmination of the ballet genre. The recording, from Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques is completed by excerpts from Les Amours déguisés, Psyché, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Carnaval.

Naples was in the mid-18th century the third largest European city and one of the greatest centres of political, commercial and cultural influence. The conservatoires there were founded by religious orders and were originally intended as charitable institutions for the accommodation and education of orphans, but soon became real centres of musical education and performance; many leading composers were pupils and teachers there and so contributed to the founding of the Neapolitan School. Porpora and Hasse are the greatest representatives of the Neapolitan style and both settled in Venice before rising to international fame. Their writing was strongly influenced by opera and reflects the Italian taste of the time; it is also present in their religious compositions. Les Muffatti and the South-African countertenor Clint van der Linde present works of exceptional expressive power, with Hasse’s Hostes Averni and Porpora’s Nisi Dominus being recorded here for the first time.

François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles offer us a double-sided portrait of Saint-Saëns here. On one side, some of the most fascinating symphonic poems of French Romanticism are revealed in all the shimmering timbres of the period. On the other, we rediscover a composer who enjoyed a good laugh (The Carnival of the Animals also returns to its original colours!), when he was not involved in the early days of the cinema, with the very first music ever composed for a film!

Inspired by a fable by La Fontaine, Rameau produced perhaps his most brilliant music for his penultimate great work, blending reality and the surreal on several levels. This passionate new production by José Montalvo stunningly choreographed by Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, sets new standards in entertainment, charm and ingenuity. The sharp and spectacular multimedia staging does full justice to Rameau's dazzling burlesque, confirming Olivier Rouvière's statement that ‘Les Paladins' is the last laugh of a witty 77-year old composer’. Recorded live in 2004 at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet in true surround sound, both the virtuoso cast and Les Arts Florissants are in top form, clearly enjoying themselves in the masterful hands of William Christie.

André Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749) was educated by the Jesuits and had a career as a Musketeer before resigning to study music with André Campra. His first ‘hit’ was the pastoral Issé in 1697, which was written for the court but immediately taken up by the Opéra in Paris. He rose to prominent positions in both contexts and Sémiramis was first performed in 1718. Influenced by the Italophile Campra, Destouches abandoned the traditional five-part string scoring of Lully and his followers and created a work that was perhaps too serious for its time: only now are we in a position to recognise his work as an important step along the road from the aesthetic of Lully to that of Rameau.

Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio is an exciting drama of life, love and death, set in the 4th century Roman Empire. Preferring to devote her life to God, Teodosia rejects the love of Arsenio, the son of the Roman governor, and welcomes death. St. Theodosia of Tyre died at the age of 18, in the year 308. One cannot help but be struck by the dramatic strength and the vocal beauty of this work, performed here by a very talented cast, including Emmanuelle de Negri, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Anthea Pichanick, Renato Dolcini and the fiery orchestra, Les Accents, led by Thibault Noally.

Les trois oeuvres enregistrées ici sont "Tombeau de M. de Lulli" (1695), "Les Caractères de la Danse" (1715) & "Les Elémens" (1737). La première est un vibrant hommage à celui qui fut le "mentor" de Rebel. Ecrite pour ensemble instrumental, cette pièce aux caractères changeants adopte une ritournelle déchirante qui réapparait entre chaque mouvements rapides. Les deux dernières sont des "symphonies chorégraphiques" où les mouvements de danses ont une place de choix (notamment dans les "Caractères de la Danse" ; le public de l'époque était friand de ces pièces ("Courante", "Chaconne", "Rigaudon", "Passepied"…)). Le "Prélude" des "Elémens" est une représentation du "Chaos", dont le tout premier accord est une des pages les plus célèbres de son auteur.