Texte paru dans: / Appeared in: Early Music Today (06-08/2015)
Challenge Classics
CC72664
Code-barres / Barcode : 0608917266429
Reviewer: Nicholas
Anderson
Lalande, de
Lalande, Delalande, take your pick (the last-mentioned is preferred on this
disc), was a favoured composer of Louis XIV. By the time of his death in
1726 he had occupied all the principal musical posts at court and had
composed over 60 ‘grands motets’, numerous sacred pieces for smaller
ensembles and almost 20 ballets. The main corpus of his instrumental music
is contained in a vast collection of ‘Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy’
assembled over different periods into dance suites. The music is full of
character and charm and nowhere more so than in three ‘Caprices ou
Fantaisies’ all of which feature in this pleasingly presented programme.
The Elbipolis
Baroque Orchestra Hamburg has confined itself primarily to German
repertoire, until now. Here the musicians present their French credentials
with aplomb if not invariably with ultramontine inflexions. The music has
been preserved in ‘short score’, in this instance mostly upper part and bass
from which the composer’s fuller intentions can be realised. Frequent
references to particular instrumentation allow us to form a clear picture of
Delalande’s colourful and rich-textured palette.
Violinist and
director Jürgen Gross has selected dances from three suites whose
instrumentation here is confined to woodwind and strings. Among them are two
extended Passacailles and a fine Sarabande en Rondeau. The musical high
watermark, though is the second Caprice in G minor ‘que le Roy demandoit
souvent’. Here we find passages of sustained, and tender beauty, sometimes
with a hint of melancholy.
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