Lully and Rameau

[MickyD]

An interesting selection of new discs from the Château de Versailles label on Record Review this morning.

I'm not sure if I'll get the Rameau motets, already being in possession of the Christie and Herreweghe versions, which I like a lot. But am intrigued by the new Les Paladins recording, which claims to be the most complete so far - I have a version from Konrad Junghanel and an international cast, but wonder if this new one is worth adding to the collection. The new set fills 3 CDs as opposed to Junghanel's 2, so I guess there must be quite a bit more music on it.

[Mandryka]

An interesting selection of new discs from the Château de Versailles label on Record Review this morning.

I'm not sure if I'll get the Rameau motets, already being in possession of the Christie and Herreweghe versions, which I like a lot. But am intrigued by the new Les Paladins recording, which claims to be the most complete so far - I have a version from Konrad Junghanel and an international cast, but wonder if this new one is worth adding to the collection. The new set fills 3 CDs as opposed to Junghanel's 2, so I guess there must be quite a bit more music on it.

I haven’t heard the programme but I want to say that I have two recordings with Myriam Rignol on the label which I’m glad to have. One is Bach cello suites on viol, maybe not the ideal choice of instrument but nevertheless interesting to have and a good contrast with Pandolfo. And the other is more unreservedly a success I think - viol duos with Mathilde Vialle. It contains the most astonishingly tender rendition of Sainte Colombe’s Les Regrets.

Am I tempted by the Koopman? I nearly went to the concert but covid intervened. I think I’ll pass.

[BBMmk2]

Thanks for this. I must investigate further, these composers. Rameau’s Les Boreades, is still neglected.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's funny but I'm not that keen on what I've listened to of either of these composers, or the French Baroque more generally. I find it often over-fussy - like its contemporary architecture (viz Versailles) - which our people emulated ad nauseam in the second half of the 19th century (viz Victoria Station Hotel, Manchester Towen Hall): the fussy architecture, that is, not the music - and insufficiently contrapuntal for my liking. Please, someone, put me right on this!

[RichardB]

Rameau’s Les Boreades, is still neglected.

Not really - there are two complete audio recordings (JEG and Luks), two complete video recordings (Christie and Haim) and several of dance suites, which is more than most of Rameau's operas have received - the first complete recording of Achante et Céphise came out only a few months ago, for example.

[RichardB]

I find it often over-fussy

I think you might be hearing the ornamentation as being added on to the music, whereas actually it's a generalisation of the idea of a note to include more complex and constantly varying sound-entities (not entirely unlike the corresponding practice in North Indian classical music); but Rameau's music is about so many other things: innovative orchestration and harmony, an intuitive feeling for dance movement, and much else.