Duos über Stücke, die für Theorbe, Cembalo oder Gambe (solo) komponiert wurden, zum Auftakt natürlich die „Baricades mistériuses“, danach Musik von Robert de Visée, Michel Lambert, Marin Marais, Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Marc-Antoine Charpentiert, Antoine Fourqueray, Jean-Philippe Rameau sowie noch etwas mehr François Couperin. Léa Désandre und Marc Mauillon singen einmal separat und einmal gemeinsam mit, auf vier der Stücke (den drei mit Gesang und dem instrumentalen „La Rêveuse“ von Marais) spielt Myriam Rignol an der Gambe mit.
Wunderbar – kam gestern und lief am Abend bereits, und jetzt wieder … letzter Arbeitstag in diesem bekloppten Jahr, das Telefon verhalte sich gefälligst ruhig!
Das hier schreibt Gramophone (die CD erschien bereits im August):
If you’re the sort who likes to know exactly what’s going on, you may well find this album frustrating. What the lutenist Thomas Dunford and harpsichordist Jean Rondeau have done is to serve up a selection of French Baroque chamber works, most of them originally for solo lute (eg de Visée), harpsichord (Couperin, d’Anglebert) or even bass viol (Marais), and perform them as duos. No such arrangements exist (at least, as far as I know), and no coherent explanation is offered, so one assumes they are semi-improvised. Free improvisation is certainly well within the capability of these two excellent musicians but here they tend to stick closely to the written progress of the music, with the fantasy coming from the way they share out the melodic and accompanimental roles between them, swapping over sometimes for a whole piece, sometimes between phrases, sometimes cutting loose with a quick counter-phrase and sometimes joining together in a sudden joyous unison.
If that sounds naughty of them, the results justify the means; the links between the lute and harpsichord repertoires were close during the French Baroque, and the whole exercise sounds perfectly natural. Court composers such as Couperin, Marais and de Visée would have known each other well, and it is not hard to imagine them getting together in impromptu ensembles of this kind to please the king of an evening.
Though still both around 30, Dunford and Rondeau are already steeped in this rich and subtle repertoire, and play it like they own it – which is perhaps why they feel able to let Couperin’s Dodo fall sleepily from his perch at the finish. Both also like to indulge some slowish tempos, but Dunford’s way with a piece like Marais’s Les voix humaines captivates with its intense tenderness, while Rondeau has a habit of placing every note with immensely satisfying rightness, sweetness and precision. They invite guest musicians to their friendly soirée too, all of whom add to the pleasure. Did the Roi Soleil ever ask for programme notes, I wonder?
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba