musica Dei donum
CD reviews
"Les Plaisirs du Louvre"
Ensemble Correspondances
Dir: Sébastien Daucé
rec: July 24 - 27, 2019, Poitiers, TAP
Harmonia mundi - HMM 905320 (© 2020) (81'21")
Liner-notes: E/D/F; lyrics - translations: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
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anon:
Cesse mortel d'importuner (Juste mespris de saincte Agnez) (after Pierre Guédron) [8];
Conseille-moi mon coeur (David disgrâcié) (after Antoine Boesset) [6];
Quels tourments rigoureux (Le Purgatoire) (after Pierre Guédron) [8];
anon (?Louis CONSTANTIN, c1585-1657):
Les Suisses;
Les Suissesses;
Les Vallets de la Faiste;
M. de Liancourt;
Antoine BOESSET (1587-1643):
Aimes-moi Cloris (Dialogue) [9];
Astres pleins de malheurs (Récit de la Nuit) [4];
Bien loin profanes de ces lieux (Concert des Nymphes des Bois) [7] ;
Ce roi vainqueur de nos malheurs (Pour le Roy) [10];
Fut-il jamais une rigeur pareille [3];
Je perds le repos et les sens [12];
Je suis l'adorable Équité (Récit de la Félicité, la Justice, et les Amours) [12];
Me veux-tu voir mourir [12];
Monarque triomphant (Au Roy) [9];
Ne vante point flambeau des cieux [2];
Ô mort l'objet de mes plaisirs [1];
Que prétendez-vous mes désirs [12];
Reine que je sers et que je connais (Concert de Diane et ses Nymphes) [7];
Segua chi vuol iniquo Amore [12];
Jacques Champion DE CHAMBONNIÈRES (1601-1672), arr Sébastien Daucé:
L'Entretien des Dieux [15];
François DE CHANCY (c1600-1656):
Rares fleurs vivante peinture [13];
Louis COUPERIN (1626-1661), arr Sébastien Daucé:
La Piémontoise;
LOUIS XIII (1601-1643):
Les Gascons;
Étienne MOULINIÉ (1599-1676):
Il sort de nos corps emplumés (Concert de différents oyseaux) [5];
Ô doux sommeil [14];
Rompez les charmes du sommeil (Air de la Ridicule) [11]
Sources:
Antoine Boesset, [1] Premier livre d'airs à quatre et cinq parties, 1617;
[2] Second livre d'airs à quatre et cinq parties, 1620;
[3] Troisième livre d'airs à quatre et cinq parties, 1621;
[4] Quatrième livre d'airs à quatre et cinq parties, 1624;
[5] Étienne Moulinié, Airs avec la tablature de luth, 1624;
[6] Pierre Ballard, ed., Odes chrétiennes accommodées aux plus beaux airs à 4 & 5 parties de Guédron et Boesset, 1625;
[7] Antoine Boesset, Sixième livre d'airs à quatre & cinq parties, 1628;
[8] Pierre Ballard, ed., La Dépouille d'Égypte, 1629;
Antoine Boesset, [9] Septième livre d'airs à quatre & cinq parties, 1630;
[10] Huitième livre d'airs à quatre & conq parties, 1632;
[11] Étienne Moulinié, Airs de cour avec la tablature de luth, Cinquiesme livre, 1635;
[12] Antoine Boesset, Neuvième livre d'airs à quatre & cinq parties, 1642;
[13] François de Chancy, Deuxième livre d'airs de cour à 4 parties, 1644;
[14] Étienne Moulinié, Airs à 4 avec la basse continue, ms [1668];
[15] Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, Pièces de clavessin, 1670
Caroline Bardot, Élodie Fonnard, Caroline Weynants, soprano;
Lucile Richardot, mezzo-soprano;
David Tricou, haute-contre;
Davy Cornillot, Marc Mauillon, baritone;
Étienne Bazola, Nicolas Brooymans, bass
Lucile Perret, recorder;
Étienne Floutier, Myriam Rignol, Louise Bouedo, Mathias Ferré, Mathilde Vialle, viola da gamba;
Diego Salamanca, lute;
Thibaut Roussel, lute, theorbo, guitar;
Sébastien Daucé, harpsichord;
Matthieu Boutineau, organ
In recent years quite a number of discs have been released which are devoted to the music which was part of the entertainment of the court and the aristocracy in France during the 17th century. The disc under review here focuses on what was written and performed during the reign of Louis XIII (1601-1643). One of the main genres of secular vocal music was the air de cour, which had its origins in the late 16th century. In the course of the 17th century the subject matter of such airs was varied, as was the scoring, from solo voice and lute (later basso continuo) to four or five voices. Among the main composers of airs de cour were Pierre Guédron, Antoine Boesset and Étienne Moulinié. All the airs included on the programme are from their pen. The only other composer is François de Chancy, who - according to Thomas Leconte, in his programme notes - was placed alongside the composers just mentioned by his contemporaries, but is little known today.
A number of airs were originally intended to be sung during performances of ballets. This was a major form of entertainment of the King and his entourage. Louis XIII often participated in ballet performances. He even composed a ballet himself: Les Gascons is taken from his Ballet de la Merlaison, "composé et dansé par le roi". The ballet remained an essential part of musical culture in France well into the 18th century, and it was to be one of the pillars of French opera, as deveoped by Jean-Baptiste Lully under the reign of Louis XIV. Some airs written for ballet performances take the form of a dialogue between two or more characters, and that is another link to opera. An example is Boesset's Je suis l'adorable, a récit of Felicity, Justice and Cupids. This was written for the Ballet de la Félicité, "on the subject of the happy birth of Monsieur le Dauphin" - the birth of Louis XIV in 1638.
Obviously most airs have love at its subject, not only happy love but also its trials and tribulations. An example of the latter is Je perds le repos et les sens by Antoine Boesset: "I lose my repose and my senses with grief at non seeing Sylvia, and soon the end of my life will reveal the sorrow I feel". It is also a piece in which we meet characters known from the world of Arcadia, the imaginary world which was the ideal of the aristocracy in the baroque era (which is also expressed in the Italian chamber cantata of the late 17th and the early 18th centuries). Sylvia also turns up in Boesset's dialogue between her and Cloris, Aime-moi Cloris. In Moulinié's Ô doux Sommeil the protagonist addresses Phyllis, another Arcadian character, who is also mentioned in Boesset's Ne vante point flambeau des cieux.
Two subjects need to be mentioned. Boesset's Monarque triomphant addresses the King (Au Roy): "Triumphant monarch, who, by extinguishing for ever the pride of the rebels, makes all things so tranquil. (...) Who does not admire the virtues that everywhere accompany your steps, and whose radiance surrounds you?" Such eulogies would later be the subject of the prologues in operas in Lully's time. Some airs were the subject of the contrafactum practice, the replacement of a secular text by a sacred one. One of Guédron's most famous airs, Cessez mortels de soupirer, is performed here with a spiritual text, Cesse mortel d'importuner: "Cease, mortal, from importuning my chaste heart with your laments; I cannot abandon it to the stratagem of your complaints. One God alone must be loved perfectly." Conseille-moi mon coeur, taken from the collection Odes chrétiennes accommodées aux plus beaux airs à 4 & 5 parties de Guédron et Boesset is an contrafactum of Boesset's Qui vit jamais amant, and deals with King David's repentance after his affair with Bathsheba: "Counsel me, my heart, before the severity of the great God of vengeance, at my last end, pronounces my doleful sentence." This is an aspect of French 17th-century musical culture that is hardly-known. It is not given any special attention in the liner-notes, but it is certainly something that deserves more interest.
As one may expect from the Ensemble Correspondances, the performances are outstanding. Sébastien Daucé has clear ideals with regard to voices and style of singing. There is an optimum of consistency in this department; the solo episodes all receive stylish performances, and in the ensembles the voices blend perfectly. There is some fine playing by the instruments in the ballets and in the keyboard pieces that Daucé transcribed for viols. Instrumental music was another important part of musical entertainment at the court, which mostly resided in the Louvre, today a world-famous museum. It is also there that the ballets were performed.
There is just one issue which I find hard to understand: Daucé sticks to modern pronunciation. It sounds rather odd to my ears, aspecially as I have listened to several discs with this kind of repertoire, performed by Les Arts Florissants, which is consistent in its use of a historical pronunciation. Even so, I strongly recommend this disc as both the music and the performances are superb.
Johan van Veen (© 2022)
Relevant links:
Ensemble Correspondances