Le coucher du Roi - Music for Louis XIV's
Chamber
Danaé Monnié (soprano), Marc Mauillon (baritone), Thomas Leconte, Valérie Balssa (recorder), Josèphe Cottet, Yoko Kawakubo (violin), Myriam Rignol, Mathilde Vialle (treble and bass viol), Julie Dessaint (bass viol), Romain Falik (theorbo, guitar), Sébastien Daucé (harpsichord)/Thibaut Roussel (theorbo, guitar)
rec. 2019, Château of Versailles, France
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as a stereo 16/44 download with pdf booklet from Outhere
CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES SPECTACLES CVS029 [74:00]
Life in and around the court of Louis XIV of France was strongly regulated and codified. There were some rituals that never changed and were performed with painstaking precision every day. One of them was the ceremony that ended with the King going to bed. Before that, he was used to be entertained by some of the musicians at his court who played his favourite music. That was very different from the splendid music performed as part of evening entertainment, in the chapel or in the opera. This was small-scale music, either performed in its original scoring, or arranged to trios by Anne Danican Philidor, the librarian of the King's Music.
The programme on the disc under review here brings us to such an event in 1713. It includes the music that could have been performed at some night that year, two years before the death of the Sun King. It lends the programme a
large amount of nostalgia; the music that is performed had been known by the King
for many years, and there are even pieces that he may have danced to in his youth. There is music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, the Italian who in his youth had been engaged to establish a true French opera, as an alternative to the Italian opera which conquered the entire continent.
Lully's father-in-law, Michel Lambert, is also represented with some songs. In his time he was one of the main representatives of a genre of vocal music specifically connected to the court, the air de cour. The performance is opened with pieces by Michel-Richard de Lalande, one of the King's favourite composers, whose grands motets were frequently performed at the Chapelle Royale. He also composed Simphonies pour les soupers du roy, music to be performed during the King's meals.
A special place was reserved for Robert de Visée, who was not only a brilliant theorbo player, but also the personal guitar teacher of the King. Among all his musicians, it was Visée who had the most intimate relationship with him. Marin Marais was the star gambist, alongside Étienne Lemoyne, who was also a professional theorbo player, and Michael de La Barre played the instrument which in the King's later years gained popularity, the transverse flute. François Couperin was also a relatively new addition to the King's music establishment, acting as a replacement for the blind d'Anglebert and as teacher of several princesses of the royal family.
This disc offers an interesting insight into music life at the court of Louis XIV. This time it is not its splendour, in the form of operas or grands motets that is presented, but music as performed
in the King's chamber, more intimate and reflecting what was close to his heart. Here we get to the inside of the King's musical taste rather than the outside, which was partly ceremonial and representative. It also shows the specific character of French music, which is very different from what was written in Italy. Take Lambert's Dialogue de Marc-Antoine et de Cléopâtre: it has an intimacy that we would never hear in a comparable piece by an Italian composer. Visée's La Conversation may well be considered the core of what was typical of the French style: music as conversation.
Obviously, a chaconne and a passacaille could not be omitted. These were a fixed part of any opera, and also appeared in many instrumental works of the time. Another typical feature of French music was the Plainte, the French version of what was known as the lamento in Italian music, but then far less dramatic and demonstrative. Again, its origin was in the opera, but it had made its way into instrumental music.
It needs special skills to perform this music idiomatically. A too dramatic approach would distort it, but too much restraint may turn it into a rather dull affair. Nothing of that is the case here. The performers are fully acquainted with this kind of repertoire, and have found the right way of performing it. This is indeed a rather quiet programme, in accordance with the circumstances under which it was performed in Louis' chamber. The music and the qualities of the performers guarantee a special kind of entertainment, ideally suited to be savoured at a quiet evening.
The physical production comprises a CD and a DVD-Video; the latter was not included in my digital download, but seems to be available for download at the sources I checked. It seems to comprise the same programme, but with some different performers.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
Contents
Michel-Richard de LALANDE (1657-1726)
Prélude [2:00]
Grande pièce Royale [8:33]
Étienne LEMOYNE (C1640-1715)
Prélude [1:32]
Michel LAMBERT (1610-1696) (attr)
Sombres déserts [4:04]
Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632-1687)
Atys:
Plainte d'Atys [2:09]
Jean-Baptiste LULLY, arr Anne Danican PHILIDOR (1681-1728)
Suite in G ré Sol [12:18]
Robert DE VISÉE (c1650/65-after 1732)
La Mutine, allemande gaye [1:55]
Sébastien LE CAMUS (c1610-1677)
Ah! Qui peut tranquillement attendre [4:21]
Robert DE VISÉE
La Conversation [3:30]
Michel LAMBERT
Dialogue de Marc-Antoine et de Cléopâtre [4:55]
Robert DE VISÉE
Prélude [1:36]
Michel de LA BARRE (c1675-1745)
Plainte [4:09]
Jean-Baptiste LULLY, arr Robert DE VISÉE
Le bourgeois gentilhomme:
Chaconne des Harlequins [2:07]
Marin MARAIS (1656-1728)
Gigue [1:52]
Rigaudon [1:35]
Bransle de Village [1:32]
Robert DE VISÉE
Passacaille [4:20]
Sébastien LE CAMUS
Laissez durer la nuit [6:09]
François COUPERIN (1668-1733)
XVe Ordre in a minor:
Le Dodo ou L'amour de Berceau, pièce croisée [5:15]
