Mireille Johnston

"This is the story of a dying woman. It is written as such. This is what it tells. During the performance, this woman dies before your eyes, in what is practically a live event. There is no way to conjure the fact away. The main subject of this opera is death and there is no way to avoid that. Death with love. Love with death. One and the other, one in the other." (Peter Mussbach)

The cantate francaise flourished during the first half of the eighteenth century. Morin and Bernier were among the most interesting early exponents of it, Campra, Monteclair, Clerambault and Rameau among the most impressive. Indeed, it is generally recognized that the cantate francaise reached its zenith in the hands of Clerambault. He is represented on this new disc by Le Soleil, vainqueur des nuages. It appeared in none of the composer’s five published collections of chamber cantatas but was issued separately in 1721

The Richter Ensemble performs music from the 17th to the 20th century exclusively on gut strings and uses its experience with historical performance practice to heighten the sense for the development of musical language over the centuries. The ensemble is passionately dedicated to the music of the Second Viennese School and, based on its research, has decided that the time is ripe to steer the perception of this music in a new direction, on the path of rediscovering and recapturing not only its modernity but also its connections with the past. Hence the musicians have initiated a project to record the entire string quartet works of the Second Viennese School, to place them in a historical context and to combine them with unusual works by other composers.

Composed at the Court of Coethen (1718 -1723), these six sonatas are a testament to a boundless imagination and an incredible creative power. J.S. Bach excels in the Ars combinatoria where thematic responses with two or three voices flourish, and cultivates with tenderness the art of moving and convincing in his slow movements.