Robert de VISÉE (1655-1733)
La musique de la chambre du Roi - Volume 2
Suite in C [10:57]
Suite in D [08:41]
Entrée d'Apollon* [04:27]
Suite in e minor [08:15]
Chaconne* [03:49]
Suite in B flat [08:51]
Suite in f minor [09:16]
Manuel Staropoli (recorder, transverse flute), Rosita Ippolito (viola da gamba), Massimo Marchese (theorbo)*, Manuel Tomadin (harpsichord)
rec. June 2012 at Ancelle della Carità, Rome, Italy DDD
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94437 [54:29]
La musique de la chambre du Roi - Volume 3
Allemande in e minor [02:55]
Suite in G [05:37]
Suite in g minor [08:25]
Suite in c minor [08:53]
Suite in g minor [08:33]
Suite in d minor [04:38]
Suite in D [02:30]
Gigue in F [00:45]
Suite in a minor [09:57]
Suite in g minor [06:47]
Suite in g minor [06:04]
Suite in D [09:51]
Suite in d minor [08:58]
Suite in c minor [12:36]
Suite in a minor [05:38]
Suite in g minor [08:51]
Suite in a minor [05:46]
Manuel Staropoli (recorder, transverse flute), Lorenzo Cavasanti (recorder), Cristiano Contadin (viola da gamba), Massimo Marchese (theorbo), Manuel Tomadin (harpsichord)
rec. October 2014 at Casa Cavasanti, Genoa, Italy DDD
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 95029 [59:55 + 58:32]
Some composers are inextricably connected to a specific
genre or a specific instrument. That is the case with Robert de Visée, whose
oeuvre is confined to music for a plucked instrument, in his case the theorbo
and the guitar. The former is not that surprising: it is derived from the
lute which was one of the most revered instruments - alongside the viola da
gamba - in France in the 17th century. The guitar had become popular in the
second half of the century. Around 1650 Cardinal Mazarin - himself of Italian
birth - brought the Italian guitarist Francesco Corbetta to Paris where he
became the guitar teacher of Louis XIV. Visée was probably one of his pupils
and he soon became close to the court as well. In the 1680 he regularly played
at the King's bedside in the evenings. It lasted until 1709 before
he received an official appointment, first as a singer and in 1719 as the
guitar teacher to the King, then Louis XV.
In 2010 the Italian recorder player and flautist Manuel Staropoli started
a project for Brilliant Classics which concerned the recording of chamber
music from Visée's pen. If one looks in the work-list in New Grove
one won't find any collection of music for other instruments than the
theorbo and the guitar. However, the third and last of the books which Visée
published (1716) suggests the possibility to perform the pieces with other
instruments. Its title is Pièces de théorbe et de luth mises en partition
dessus et basse. The preface refers to the harpsichord, the violin and
the viola da gamba but no instruments are specifically mentioned on the title
page. According to the performers this opens the possibility to use other
instruments, such as the recorder and the transverse flute.
My colleague Byzantion reviewed the first volume in this project here (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Aug11/visee_lute_94154.htm).
As I don't have that disc and its booklet is not available on the internet
I have to rely on what he writes as far as its content is concerned. It includes
five of the ten suites from the 1716 collection and as the second volume lists
also five suites we have to conclude that these two discs comprise the complete
collection. The question then is: what do we get in the third volume? We again
have here pieces from the 1716 collection but also from the previous two sets
of pieces for guitar. "While a number of these pieces feature in the
two earlier recordings, we have enriched this CD with the Suites that appeared
in the appendix of the earlier printed editions: Livre de Guitarre
(1682) and Livre de Pièces pour la Guitare (1686). In view of the
fact that these suites constitute an initial group of pieces that De Visée
himself transcribed for chamber ensemble, they comprise some interesting versions
of certain suites that also featured in the later definitive edition of 1716".
It would be interesting to compare the various versions but that is impossible,
partly because I don't have access to the first disc but also because
the documentation is rather poor. That is not entirely the fault of the performers:
there is no catalogue of Visée's compositions and although his three
collections are available from the Petrucci Music Library (http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Vis%C3%A9e,_Robert_de)
that does help very little as many pieces have the same title (mostly the
usual dances) and it was not common practice to mention the key of a piece.
Whereas volumes one and two consist of suites which include a number of dances
in a more or less fixed order the third volume comprises a large number of
suites of different length and constitution. The first disc opens with a separate
Allemande in e minor which is followed by a suite of three dances
from the 1682 collection and a suite from the 1716 collection which consists
of five dances. Some have two movements with the same title; in the case of
the Suite in a minor (1716; CD 1, tracks 26-30) these are exactly
the same: the first time it is played as a harpsichord solo, the second as
a solo for recorder and bc. There are other suites where the scoring changes
from one movement to the other. In the Suite in g minor which opens
the second disc the sarabande (track 4) is performed as a solo for viola da
gamba and bc and in the closing menuet the recorder and the viola da gamba
play colla parte. In the booklet to the second volume we read: "The
chamber ensemble could include various instruments for playing the basso continuo,
each of which could be played solo where necessary, to introduce one of the
movements of the suite. It was thus possible to widen the range of timbre,
and thereby gratify the listener with greater variety". There is also
another kind of variety: in some suites Staropoli swiches from the descant
to the treble recorder and vice versa from one movement to the other.
The use of various instruments within a single work seems in line with the
then common practice, for instance in Couperin's Les Nations.
He also indicated that his compositions for instrumental ensemble could be
played as harpsichord solos or with two harpsichords. This is an indication
of the flexibility in regard to scoring which seems to be a feature of French
music at the time. Therefore the practices in these recordings seem fully
justified. De Visée's music is of excellent quality and that comes
to the fore in these ensemble performances as well, also thanks to the lively
playing by Staropoli and his colleagues. Every lover of French music will
certainly enjoy these discs. The second volume includes two pieces played
on the theorbo by Massimo Marchese; they give the opportunity to become acquainted
with the 'original' Visée.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
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