George Frideric Handel and Jean-Philippe Rameau are seldom brought
together on one disc. That is understandable as they have hardly anything in
common, except that they were both brilliant keyboard players and spent a
considerable part of their careers in the composition of operas.
Stylistically there are no similarities, and they never met in person. The
booklet of this disc includes some information about the Association
'Renaissance de l'Orgue à Bordeaux'. Its activities
include the promotion of the Dom Bedos organ in the Abbatiale Sainte-Croix
in Bordeaux. This disc seems part of this promotion as the music by Handel
and Rameau is played on this very organ.
One may wonder why the music on this disc has been selected. The
liner-notes try to make the decisions plausible but I remain unconvinced.
The Handel pieces do seem most appropriate. He was a brilliant organist who
displayed his skills in the organ concertos which he performed between the
parts of his oratorios. Several of these concertos include indications for
the soloist to improvise, reflecting Handel's own practice. His
improvisational skills were widely admired. The performance of the solo part
on a large organ is certainly not historical. We know what kind of organ
Handel had at his disposal in the Covent Garden Theatre where he usually
played his concertos, and this was much smaller than the instrument played
here. Moreover, the acoustic in a theatre is very different from that in a
large church such as the Abbatiale Saint-Croix. Even if one accepts the use
of a large organ, the performance of Handel on a French organ is highly
questionable. French organs from the time of the
ancien régime were
very different from English instruments of that time. The liner-notes tell
us that Handel's organ concertos "were circulated in France by
Michel Corrette and maybe even performed as part of his
Concert
Spirituel." Unfortunately no evidence for these statements is
given.
From a musical point of view a performance on a large organ is not without
problems. That is admitted in the liner-notes: "In the concerto in D
minor HWV 309, we have preferred to replace the quick movement in D major -
less adapted to the aesthetic of the Dom Bedos - with a movement entirely
improvised on the 32-foot
grand plein jeu, which takes up some
elements of a version of this concerto for two organs, which has
unfortunately disappeared". This kind of intervention would not have
been needed if a smaller organ had been used.
Even so, the Handel concertos belong to the more convincing parts of this
disc. Rameau's
Pièces de clavecin en concerts are largely
unsatisfying. These were scored for harpsichord, two instruments - flute and
violin - and a viola da gamba; the latter could also be replaced by a second
violin. "The process of re-working and adapting musical material is a
very common practice", the liner-notes stay. That is certainly correct:
Handel is a good example, but Rameau also re-used his own music in different
guises. The
Pièces de clavecin en concerts are also available in a
contemporary arrangement for six instruments. However, the arrangements
performed here are not very plausible. Rameau was a brilliant organist and
started his career in this capacity, but that is no argument in favour of
these arrangements. In the two
Concerts it doesn't act as a
solo instrument, such as in Handel's organ concertos, but rather as a
fixed part of the ensemble. The slower pieces come off reasonably well,
especially
La Cupis from the
4e Concert, but the
Tambourins I and
II from the
3e Concert, for
instance, fail to convince. In general these performances lack the
differentiation and the subtlety of the original scoring.
The organ produces a gorgeous sound, and I would love to hear it in full
glory, but in more suitable repertoire. The playing of Paul Goussot and the
Ensemble Zaïs is excellent, and I certainly enjoyed their performances.
However, from the angle of interpretation this disc is off the mark.
According to the track-list track 10 includes an "improvised
overture" by Handel. Obviously that is wrong: one cannot record an
improvisation by a composer who died more than 250 years ago. What we get
here is an improvisation by Paul Goussot in the style of Handel.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
