Les Tuches Quatre

This new CD of Les Boréades de Montréal, features acclaimed Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin in two French Baroque Cantatas: Orphée by Nicolas Clérambault and L'Hyver by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. The recording is completed by two instrumental pieces: the lively suite from the opera Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse by Boismortier and by Michel Corrette's Concerto comique no 25 Les Sauvages.

Les années quatre-vingt ont été l’image inversée des années soixante. L’individualisme s’est substitué aux valeurs de solidarité et l’orthodoxie monétaire a remplacé l’apologie des déficits publics. L’origine de ce retournement est simple : le ralentissement de la croissance a mis à mal les finances publiques et fait plier la volonté des États, quand on comptait sur eux pour combattre la crise. …

Les amours de Ragonde (The Loves of Ragonde, original title: Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin ou La Veillée de Village) is an opera in three acts by Jean-Joseph Mouret with a libretto by Philippe Néricault Destouches. It was first performed at the Château de Sceaux in December, 1714. It is one of the first French comic operas.

Phaeton was first produced not at the Palais-Royal Theatre in Paris but modestly at Versailles in January 1683. In the spring of that year it transferred to the Palais-Royal and was well enough thought of to enjoy revivals at regular intervals into the early 1740s. Indeed, rather as Atys became known as the ''King's opera'' and Isis as the musicians', Phaeton acquired its sobriquet, ''the opera of the people''. Among the many attractive airs ''Helas! Une chaine si belle'' (Act 5) was apparently a favourite duet of Parisian audiences, while ''Que mon sort serait doux'' (Act 2), another duet, was highly rated by Lully himself. In 1688 Phaeton was chosen to inaugurate the new Royal Academy of Music at Lyon where, as Jerome de la Gorce remarks in his excellent introduction, it was so successful ''that people came to see it from forty leagues around''. The present recording is a co-production between Erato and Radio France, set up to mark the occasion of the opening of the new Opera House at Lyon.

These traditional noëls by Claude Balbastre, Michel Corrette, Louis Claude Daquin and Jean-Francois Dandrieu are intimate and elegant, and make a unique contribution to any collection of festive seasonal music. Borrowing tunes from popular songs of the day, these 18th century composers wrote noëls that are simple in nature, combining joy and devotion.