I greatly enjoyed Michi Gaigg’s directorship of Telemann’s
Miriways (see
review), so was keen to hear what she and L’Orfeo
Barockorchester would make of this repertoire. It turns out that this is not
a new recording or release however, and you may have come across it as a
SACD from the Phoenix label. This standard CPO CD therefore represents
something of a demotion if Super-Audio is important to you.
The first movement of
Les Élémens opens with a genuinely unique
musical ‘wow!’ moment, and something which in this performance is actually
quite scary.
Le Cahos or ‘chaos’ leaps out of your speakers with a
disorientating cluster of notes: all of the tones from the initial key
played simultaneously and with a raw attack which can make you jump out of
your skin. This energy is preserved in the louder sections of the movement,
but the strings stifle the scales played by the flutes as a representation
of ‘air’ almost entirely. This and the strained high trills at 4:52 just
prevent this from being a first choice for some of the most remarkable music
of this era, but it’s still pretty impressive. One of the best alternatives
for this work is on the Archiv label with Musica Antiqua Köln, where the
flutes come through clear as a bell in
Le Cahos. Christopher
Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music is also good on Decca
L’oiseau-lyre, but his
Cahos is a bit too slow and safe for my
taste.
The rest of
Les Élémens is more conventional but still very much
worthwhile, the suite presenting crowd-pleasing musical descriptions of ‘the
blissful state of nature before mankind appeared’. Rebel would have been in
his 70s when this work was given its first performance, and 1737 is also the
year the suite from
Castor et Pollux by Jean-Philippe Rameau was
first given in the Académie Royal de Musique. The record catalogues aren’t
over-stocked with versions of this work, but if you can find the old Philips
recording from Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18
th
Century then that would be my first choice. Michi Gaigg’s version has a more
chamber music feel which has its own qualities, but the richer textures of a
bigger sounding orchestra serve the music that much better, the more tender
emotions felt deeper and the more lively movements less clipped. This is not
to say Gaigg’s
Castor et Pollux serves us poorly. On the contrary,
there is plenty of dolorous sentiment in something like the
Sarbande –
Air pour Hébé et ses Suivantes, and fun in the castanets of the
Passepied, just to point out a couple of fragments.
Almost worth it for the shock of those opening moments alone, this is a
very fine recording of some excellent baroque repertoire. If you are only
looking for the best of one or other of these works then it pays to shop
around, but if the coupling attracts then you won’t be disappointed.
Dominy Clements
