Three from Les Arts Florissants, Part 1

NOTE: All of the music on these programs is from the ensemble Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie. For more information:

https://www.arts-florissants.org/en/music/ensemble-les-arts-florissants

I. Les Musiques de Molière. Harmonia Mundi HAX 8904097.

From Music Web International: One does not normally think of Molière in terms of music, and he never actually composed any operas, but together with Lully and the choreographer Pierre Beauchamps he created a new genre, the comédie-ballet, which became the favourite entertainment at court in France in the 1660s and 1670s. When Lully wasn’t available, Charpentier was a preferable stand-in, and even though the two were not always on speaking terms, they both produced congenial music of the highest order. Lully is rightly represented with four works: La Pastorale comique, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, George Dandin ou le Grand Divertissement Royal de Versailles and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, while Charpentier gets only two: Intermèdes nouveaux du Mariage force and La Malade imaginaire. On the other hand, the music from the latter occupies about 75 % of the total playing time. 

Some years ago, Glossa issued a disc titled “Molière à L’Opera”, which I reviewed very positively, and I refer readers to consult it for more historical facts. Most of the material on Christie’s disc was recorded much earlier than that, as early as 1990, and it is interesting to note that both have the same approach to the music: less reverential to 17th-century music and rather down-to-earth, even burlesque, which presumably was authentic even at the court of Louis XIV. 

William Christie knows this repertoire inside out, having explored it for more than a half-century. Likewise, his musicians and singers – though the personnel have gradually changed – have been closely knit together. Thus, what we hear here is ensemble work with high precision, rhythmical vitality and freshness. The music is colourful, and in the Ballet des Magiciens from La Pastorale comique, which opens the disc, there are festivities galore with percussion and woodwind, and the magicians are noisy and almost excessively parodical. The singers enjoy themselves energetically and the sense of theatre is tangible. Similarly, the Turkish march from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is glorious. It returns as an encore at the end of the programme, but then in an arrangement for two harpsichords, which gives the piece a quite different dimension. 

The king originally resided in the Louvre Castle, where the theatre performances also were held, but he frequently travelled to other royal castles where some premieres also took place, and in the 1660s he began to show an interest in the Court of Versailles, which was still under construction. He didn’t move there permanently until 1682, ‘but he already favoured the château when he gave his first grand fêtes in the gardens designed by the architect Le Nôtre, then still being created’ in 1668, as Catherine Cessac writes in her very informative booklet notes. The festive music performed then was Le Grand Divertissement royal de Versailles, from which Cloris’ lament Ah ! mortelles douleurs (track 3) is heard here, expressively sung by Emmanuelle De Negri. From Le Mariage force we hear Les Grotesques perform a lively and thrilling scene, spiced with caustic dissonances and good-humoured theatricality. Here, Charpentier is the composer, and he is often more unpredictable than Lully.

Lully is back with two short excerpts from Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, where L’Égyptienne’s solo is insightfully sung by Claire Debono (track 5) and the chorus is inspired by their concerted piece. The rest of the disc is devoted to Le Malade imaginaire – possibly the most popular of Molière’s comedies to this very day, and a masterwork in every respect. This was the first full-scale collaboration between Molière and Charpentier – and also the last since Molière, who had recently turned 51, died after the fourth performance in February 1673. This was of course a great loss to French theatre. The music is quite extended and as far as I understand this is the complete score – and it is masterly music. The play is in three acts, and each act is followed by an intermède; besides this, there is a lively overture, an Églogue en musique et en danse and a Petit opéra impromptu. Altogether, there is a playing time of almost 45 minutes – all of it riveting. The longest intermède is the last and their spoken dialogue is mixed with music. Here we get a whiff of the theatre when it is at its most realistic. The actors are professionals, and William Christie himself takes the role of Praeses and reveals that he is a marvellous actor.

This disc should be heard by anyone who has an interest in baroque opera, and it is a valuable complement to the Glossa issue, referred to above.

Göran Forsling

II. Bill & Friends. Harmonia Mundi HAF 8905379.

From Gramophone: William Christie was 80 in December, and this release is a celebration of the fact by some of the fine young musicians he has welcomed into his Les Arts Florissants family in recent years. Nice idea, and with players of the calibre of Thomas Dunford, Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Myriam Rignol and Justin Taylor, as well as current Les Arts Florissants leader Emmanuel Resche-Caserta and two young singers typical of the many Christie has been helping on their way for over 40 years, it certainly looks like a worthy project.

There are some delights here: a clutch of the frivolous French songs known variously as airs à boire or brunettes of the type LAF brought to life on record with typical interpretative wit a few years back, and charmingly sung by Gwendoline Blondeel and Juliette Mey; a violin sonata each by Senaillé (Langlois de Swarte recalling the bold musicianship of the earlier recording he and Christie made of this Corellian composer – 10/21) and Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (a brilliant and powerful piece, played with compelling swagger by Resche-Caserta and providing a strong case for thinking Jacquet the best of the French Baroque sonata composers); harpsichord duets real and imagined by Purcell, Handel and Couperin (two pulsing musettes getting stealthily faster) in which Christie and Taylor join forces as amicably as in their recent recording of Le Roux (10/24); and, to link things together, some mellow viol miniatures given solemn attention by Rignol, who then ends the programme with a short Marais sequence. Also worth a mention is the melting transcription for violin and harpsichord of Rameau’s already-sublime harpsichord solo Les tendres plaintes.

There can be few ensembles who could throw off a mixed French baroque programme like this with such flair, understanding and beauty. 

III. Nei giardini d’amore. Harmonia Mundi HAF 8905347.

From Gramophone: Carlo Vistoli and Hugh Cutting make for superb duet partners and keen communicators on this new album of Baroque arias, on which they also each have a solo cantata offering plenty of textural variety. Their impressively dramatic performances contain deliciously modest moments leading to music-making of great subtlety. Added to this, the instrumental playing is so superb as to nearly steal the show, as listeners will immediately note from the tempting sway of Monteverdi’s ‘Damigella tutta bella’.

Caldara’s Medea in Corinto, an early cantata written after 1709, is presented here by Vistoli. A Venetian who lived between Italy and Austria, Caldara ultimately served as vice-Kapellmeister to the Habsburg court in Vienna, but as a contemporary of Vivaldi he is still under-represented on recordings today. Medea in Corinto was presumably written for his wife (a contralto), and the story begins just as Medea realises she will be abandoned by Jason; thus there are moments of fury that suit Vistoli very well, since dramatic presence, quick-fire recitative and particularly fine coloratura are well within his remit. His performance is gripping right the way through and makes an interesting comparison with Gérard Lesne (Erato, 11/91), who takes a more smouldering approach to Medea’s rage. Separating this solo cantata from the next is Handel’s Trio Sonata in C minor, from which Christie coaxes a wonderful throbbing heartbeat right from the start.

Cutting sings Vivaldi’s cantata Cessate, omai cessate, which follows a standard Italian cantata structure with two recitative-aria pairs. Cutting I find warmer-toned and more exuberant than Scholl (Harmonia Mundi, 4/96), and he is also more closely recorded, which showcases the even tone he has throughout his range. Still, I favour the recording by Tim Mead (Alpha, 3/23), largely due to the second aria, ‘Ah ch’infelice sempre’, and its juxtaposition of smooth vocal line with pizzicato violins – a contrast that is slightly too brittle for my taste in Christie’s interpretation.

As for the main duets, Bononcini’s Sempre piango compares favourably with the recording by La Venexiana (Glossa, 2/18) due to these singers’ greater ease with the demanding range. Here, after the lamenting cello line, Vistoli and Cutting present a first duet dripping with emotion and clever contrast. Handel’s later version of Caro autor di mia doglia rather magnificently sounds as if it starts in the middle of a conversation due to its restless bass line, and the fiendishly difficult last duet is both exhausting and exciting in this performance. This is indeed an album of incredibly impressive singing and – as ever from William Christie – a well-wrought programme.