Comédie et Tragédie - Vol. 1
Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632-1687)
Suite from ‘Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme’, LWV 43 (1670) [18:12]
Jean-Féry REBEL (1666-1747)
Les Élémens (1737-38) [24:33]
Marin MARAIS (1656-1728)
Suite from ‘Alcyone’ (1706) [24:17]
Tempesta di Mare/Gwyn Roberts; Richard Stone
rec. 9-11 June 2014, Gould Recital Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
CHANDOS CHACONNE CHAN0805 [67:05]
This is the first of a two-disc series from Tempesta di Mare
(also known as the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra) which take on late 17th
French instrumental music from the theatre. There has been a long European
tradition of taking ‘Suites’ of music which could be used outside
the theatre. For the period in which Lully, Marais, and Rebel worked there
were plenty of overtures, dances, illustrative interludes and intermezzos
on which to draw.
Jean-Baptiste Lully was commissioned by King Louis XIV to compose a comédie-ballet
on Molière’s play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme for the visit of
the Turkish ambassador in 1669. The play is about one M. Jourdain whose attempts
to rise above his middle-class background see him believing that he part of
a Turkish ceremony. This is Lully’s opportunity to use exotic percussion
and Turkish national flavours in music to please the ambassador. There is
also a Spanish dance with clapping, and the whole thing ends with a very nice
Chaconne.
Both Marin Marais and Jean-Féry Rebel were pupils of Lully, and while working
within the particular demands of the court Rebel’s ballet Les Élémens
stands out in particular for some remarkable music, portraying each of the
four elements during the world’s creation. I last came across this piece
in a CPO re-release with L’Orfeo Barockorchester conducted by Michi
Gaigg (review).
The impact of that incredible opening to Le Chaos is greater in this
case, the larger scale of the orchestral sound delivering more scary emphasis,
though with the strings drowning out the flutes and with less stereo width
in the recording. If you want a more realistic sonic picture then this Chandos
version is better. Although it won’t blow you out of your seat in quite
the same way it is still pretty stunning as a musical statement, and you can
hear the winds. None of the subsequent movements approach this striking feel
for modernity, but Tempesta di Mare’s detailed and rhythmically precise
performances are superbly executed, and the quirky bassoon is deserving of
a mention.
Marais’s Alcyone is a tragic opera, following in Lully’s
tradition of tragédie en musique. The tale is a fairly typical one
of disaster and celebration, with sinister magical influences ultimately foiled
by a beneficent deity. I haven’t paid much attention to Marais in the
past, but this is cracking music, full of variety in terms of melodic and
harmonic interest, and with a wind-machine in the penultimate movement Tempête,
what’s not to love. There seem to be hardly any other recordings of
this suite around, and Tafelmusik’s House of Dreams (review)
only has eight movements to the thirteen on this recording. A comparison does
however point out where Tempesta di Mare’s weakness is, with the sheer
energy and colour in Tafelmusik’s performance generating a more compelling
view of the music. Recorded in a small-sounding acoustic, this Chandos disc
no doubt approaches a greater reality in performances which may well have
taken place in the more intimate chambers of the royal palace rather than
a vast concert hall.
Philadelphia-based baroque music ensemble Tempesta di Mare is a great band
and I will be looking out for the second volume in this set, but with no sense
of improvisatory freedom or much spontaneous explosiveness they sound very
‘safe’. You can very much delight in this excellent music, but
may not find it sets your blood racing as can other performances of comparable
repertoire.
Dominy Clements
Previous review : Brian
Wilson
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