French Baroque Music

[The new erato]

Le Triomphe de la Folie

I thought I had copyrighted this title for mye future autobiography? (c)

[Que]

New issue!



Q

[Que]

And...



Q

[Cosi bel do]

I'm wondering if that would not have been better in this topic :

Yesterday was made the special William Christie day on french radio France Musique 

A few very nice videos were posted after that !

Gaspard Leroux, Pièces pour clavecin : Suite en ré (Sarabande, Menuet et Passepied)
http://dai.ly/x28upg9

Lambert : « Iris n'est plus, mon Iris m'est ravie » (Paul Agnew)
http://dai.ly/x28vxh7

Lambert : « Vos mépris » (Paul Agnew)
http://dai.ly/x28vxyc

Nicolas Bernier : Diane et Endymion, duo « O nuit c'est à tes voiles sombres » (Elodie Fonnard, Marc Mauillon)
http://dai.ly/x28vxe4

Campra : Le Triomphe de la Folie, « Que vois-je ? Quel objet ? » (Elodie Fonnard, Marc Mauillon)
http://dai.ly/x28v7zy

[Cosi bel do]

And...



Q

Do you like Duphly ? How is Belder in this ? I don't like him much in anything usually...

My favourite Duphly recording is by Elisabeth Joyé. On the harpsichord of the Château d'Assas (the one Scott Ross played and recorded on) :



Also, the complete set by Rousset is impressing (a little too fast for my taste but still magnificent). The harpsichord is the Kroll 1776 restored by Ducornet :

[Que]

Do you like Duphly ? How is Belder in this ? I don't like him much in anything usually...

I do, like Duphly, I mean. Belder, it totally depends what he plays. His C.Ph.E. Bach is terrific, as is his Soler.

This Duphly set is brand new, haven't heard it. But I don't know if French harpsichord music, its quite up Belder's alley... I did not like his Rameau, for instance.

My favourite Duphly recording is by Elisabeth Joyé. On the harpsichord of the Château d'Assas (the one Scott Ross played and recorded on) :



Also, the complete set by Rousset is impressing (a little too fast for my taste but still magnificent). The harpsichord is the Kroll 1776 restored by Ducornet :

I have the series by Jean-Patrice Brosse (Pierre Vérany):



Love it (also plays a Kroll), but both items you mention are on the shopping list. (I am a long-standing Rousset fan).

Q

[Cosi bel do]

Brosse... Hem... I'd be afraid even to try it

[Que]

Brosse... Hem... I'd be afraid even to try it

No fear.  His recordings served me well in Duphly and Balbastre.
Sure, he is neither technically nor intellectually a high flyer like Rousset et al. But not as self imposing either!
Good, genuin, solid and idiomatically French playing. But, fom what I've heard he is rather unimaginative at the organ, well, so be it. 

Q

[Cosi bel do]

Well, I just listened to a few pieces from his Duphly albums, on musicme.com.
My only commentary is : please listen to someone else. I wouldn't call it idiomatic at all, rather unidiomatic (and unimaginative, spot-on).

I admit, though, that Duphly is difficult and that there are dozens of worst renditions than Brosse, but it is no excuse. The bare score has more eloquence.

[Mandryka]

If it's the slow tempos which people are attracted to, then they may enjoy Yannick le Gaillard. In Duphly I mean.

[Cosi bel do]

It's not the slow tempo. Joyé is (very) slow. Rousset fast (sometimes too fast). But both are excellent.

[SonicMan46]

Do you like Duphly ? How is Belder in this ? I don't like him much in anything usually...

My favourite Duphly recording is by Elisabeth Joyé. On the harpsichord of the Château d'Assas (the one Scott Ross played and recorded on) :

Also, the complete set by Rousset is impressing (a little too fast for my taste but still magnificent). The harpsichord is the Kroll 1776 restored by Ducornet :

 

Well, I just own the Rousset 2-CD set, but will be interested what others mentioned seem to 'surface' as favorites - not sure how much music Duphly wrote but is there a lot of overlap on the recordings presented - curious?  Dave

[Cosi bel do]

About Rousset, actually, what I called a complete set is probably not. I didn't really check, I think it's a large selection but there's really a bunch of pieces on these 2 CDs as he always takes brisk tempos

[Mandryka]

So there's a piece by Duphly called La Forqueray which I like, I particularly like to hear Skip Sempé play it, because he maked it exciting sounding, especially towards the end.

[Cosi bel do]

So there's a piece by Duphly called La Forqueray which I like, I particularly like to hear Skip Sempé play it, because he maked it exciting sounding, especially towards the end.

I share your taste for this piece. A while ago I had compared a few versions of this piece and Sempé actually came on top, ex aequo with Leonhardt (who played it on his late Forqueray album)

[Que]

My only commentary is : please listen to someone else. I wouldn't call it idiomatic at all, rather unidiomatic (and unimaginative, spot-on).

Rousset is on the shopping list,  so I guess I will see.

Q

[Mandryka]

I share your taste for this piece. A while ago I had compared a few versions of this piece and Sempé actually came on top, ex aequo with Leonhardt (who played it on his late Forqueray album)

If you hear of him playing in Paris please let me know. It's not easy for me to get to know about baroque cooncerts in France, which can happen in small venues (the last time I heard Sempé was in a little freezing cold church with terrible acoustics in the Marais.)

Same for Hantai, Frisch, Cuiller etc. I get the impression that the early music scene in Paris is much more active than in London.

[Cosi bel do]

If you hear of him playing in Paris please let me know. It's not easy for me to get to know about baroque cooncerts in France, which can happen in small venues (the last time I heard Sempé was in a little freezing cold church with terrible acoustics in the Marais.)

Same for Hantai, Frisch, Cuiller etc. I get the impression that the early music scene in Paris is much more active than in London.

Well... It should be but most French or French-based artists actually play more in other cities than in Paris. Baroque music, as an economic sector, is actually in France on the verge of a major crisis I think. The only ones who will be able to really resist are those who have sufficient funding from the private sector (Rousset, Haïm) and not necessarily the better ones (thinking about the latter...).
Of course it is still better than in London. HIP revolution has never deeply spread in England, besides "institutions" like the AAM.

Still you should check out programs at Cité de la musique/Philharmonie 2, and sometimes at the Collège des Bernardins. And around Paris the Festival de Pontoise and the Abbaye de Royaumont. And of course Benjamin Alard's free concerts in Saint-Louis-en-l'Île...

When was this Sempé concert in the Marais ? I think I was there too...

[Mandryka]

Well... It should be but most French or French-based artists actually play more in other cities than in Paris. Baroque music, as an economic sector, is actually in France on the verge of a major crisis I think. The only ones who will be able to really resist are those who have sufficient funding from the private sector (Rousset, Haïm) and not necessarily the better ones (thinking about the latter...).
Of course it is still better than in London. HIP revolution has never deeply spread in England, besides "institutions" like the AAM.

Still you should check out programs at Cité de la musique/Philharmonie 2, and sometimes at the Collège des Bernardins. And around Paris the Festival de Pontoise and the Abbaye de Royaumont. And of course Benjamin Alard's free concerts in Saint-Louis-en-l'Île...

When was this Sempé concert in the Marais ? I think I was there too...

I saw Sempé at l'église des billettes, about two years ago. I was at a couple of the Bach concerts at the big festival in cité de la musique earlier this year - Hantai and Asperen/Baumont. Apart from that I've seen some excellent concerts with Frisch at the Theâtre des Abbesses. And I've seen Hantai quite a few times in Salle Gaveau over the past couple of years.

I've never heard any organ music in Paris - and I'm starting to get more interested in late Messiaen so I occasionally check to see if there's anything on. But it's not easy to find out. I've had more luck with organ concerts out of Paris - I was once in the Var a couple of years ago when there was, by coincidence, an organ festival with some major players like Claudio Astrionio. That was fun because it gave me the excuse to go to some little places in Provence which I wouldn't have otherwise seen.

[Cosi bel do]

I still feel that this baroque scene in Paris is not a good reflection of the richness of the population of musicians here.

You can hear organ concerts in Paris every weekend, mostly for free. If you like Messiaen you have to hear his organ of La Trinité...
To select concerts the most practical guide is this : http://www.france-orgue.fr/disque/index.php?zpg=dsq.con
Also it will probably be more comfortable (but more expensive too) next season, when there are 2 fine concert organs at La Philharmonie and the Auditorium de Radio-France... I'm quite impatient actually.

It's just a shame that so many other organs are falling into ruin because nobody is interested. The organ of La Sorbonne, or the Clicquot of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs...