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Une Soirée à Versailles

Not much in known about Gaspard LE ROUX but his "Pièces de Clavecin",  published in 1707 but composed much earlier, are interesting not only for their intrinsic merit but also because a transcription for two violins and figured bass is printed on the same page as the harpsichord version.  Many prefaces refer to performance on other instuments and here is an example of the process at work.  The suites are mostly in the classical form of prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. The preludes, too idiomatic for transcription, are not set for trio.

It is somewhat ironic that a nation notorious for resistance to outside ideas should have accepted Jean-Baptiste LULLY, the son of a Florentine miller, to be the official court composer to Louis XIV.  His talents as violinist, guitarist and composer did not go unnoticed and his iconic appearance at the age of twenty with the fourteen-year-old  Louis XIV at the famous Ballet de la Nuit cemented his position.  It was as clear that Lully was as destined for the highest musical office as it was that Louis, already an accomplished and passionate dancer himself,  was to be the arbiter of taste in all matters from music, opera and ballet to gardening and architecture.  The campaigns of 1673 and 1674 in the Spanish Netherlands had not given much cause to celebrate at the court of Versailles.  In fact the French armies had suffered several reverses. However, as a result of victorious campaigns in the Franche-Compte region in 1674 Louis XIV gave orders for a "grand divertissement" to be held at Versailles. The festivities lasted  all summer, starting with a performance of "Alceste" on July 4. There followed  the "Grotte de Versailles" on July 11, "Le Malade Imaginaire" on July 19, Lully's " Les Fetes de l'Amour de Bacchus" on July 28, Racine's "Iphigenie" on August 18, and finished with a huge firework display on the canal on August 31.

Since his father Charles was organist of St.Gervais in Paris, François COUPERIN grew up in churchyards to the sound of bells and organs.  Charles died when François was ten but, perhaps mindful of an already prodigous talent or the fact that Couperins had been successful professional musicians for generations, the post was held open with La Lande as stand-in until François's eighteenth birthday.  He remained there until his appointment in 1693 as "Organiste du Roi".  At Versailles he was effectively court chamber music composer and amongst his various duties was to tutor members of the royal family including Maria Leczinska, the betrothed of the future Louis XV.  He published his four great seminal books of harpsichord pieces between 1713 and 1730 with the Concert Royaux (1722) , the Nouveaux Concerts and the Apothèose de Corelli (1724), the Apothèose de Lulli  (1725)  and  Les Nations (1726) in between.  He wrote music in all genres except opera and it was not until about 1780 that posterity began to call him "Le Grand", an accolade which has remained uncontested ever since.  

Jean-Philippe RAMEAU grew up in Dijon where his father was organist at St. Etienne. After a Jesuit education he then went to Milan to learn the italian style.  After positions in Clermont and Avignon he moved to Paris in 1722 where he published highly sophisticated harpischord music but also wrote music for farces and vaudeville.  As an opera composer he was a late starter writing his first great tragédie lyrique "Hippolyte et Aricie" at the age of 50.  His cantatas are early works in which he experimented with the forms and styles which he later incorporated into his mature operas.  Le Berger Fidele takes place in the world of Diane, the chaste godess-huntress whose followers are dedicated to a life of celibacy.  In the first recitative and aria Mirtil pleads with Diane to spare Amarillis who has committed the crime of falling in love.  In the second he suggets that he should die in her place, an example of perfect love.  Finally just as his beloved is blindfold on the sacrificial altar, Diane, touched by such a rare display of devotion, allows the marriage to take place.  The last aria typically unfolds the moral of the story.  It extols the power of love, which is the reward of perseverance.  

Marin MARAIS is the undisputed classicist of the bass viol in France. He learnt the instrument from St.Colombe and studied composition with Lully, in whose operas he performed as continuo player.  His five books of pieces  (1686, 1701, 1711, 1717 and 1725) are the staple diet of any gambist attempting to come to terms with the forms, techniques and spirit of the French bass viol repertoire.  In the first two books the classical suite (ie prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue) predominates.  Subsequently more and more "pièces" (like “La Guitare”) appear with programmatic content and excentric titles, reflecting a shift in taste from the classical to the roccoco, which coincides more or less exactly with the death of Louis XIV.  

The Tombeau pour Mr. de Ste. Colombe comes from his second book and is a homage from pupil to teacher.  Sainte Colombe can be seen as the father of the French viol school and indeed the instrument itself, since he added the distinctively French seventh string to the classical six-string instrument in about 1680.

Jean-Marie LECLAIR was born in Paris in 1697.  His first employment was as ballet master and composer in Turin, where he subsequently became a pupil of Somis on the violin.  From 1728 he was in charge of the "Concerts Spirituels" in Paris as well as being in the royal chapel.  He spent some time in Holland in the service of Philip, the Infanta of Spain, returning to Paris in 1745 to work for the Duc de Gramont.  He was murdered (some say by his wife's lover) in unclarified circumstances in 1764. His output consists mostly of chamber music,  including 48 sonatas for his instrument, and one opera "Scylla and Glaucus" which was performed in 1746. 

Michel Pignolet de MONTECLAIR was first noticed as "joueur de basse de violon" in the opera in Paris and it is said that he was responsible for the introduction of the double bass there.  Aside from his compositional acitivities for church stage and chamber, he  was a famous teacher with Couperin's daughters among his pupils. The music shop he founded with his nephew Boivin was one of the most notable of such establishments in Paris.  His twenty cantatas in French and four in Italian are classics of the genre, using from one to three voices and often including one or two violins with the occasional suggestion of a flute or oboe. The subjects are largely from Greek mythology or Roman history and it seems that Ovid-like metamorphoses (Daphne into a laurel bush etc.) were particularly popular.  These little opera tableaux nearly always end with a light aria which explain the moral of the story.  (notes and translations by Charles Medlam).

Formed in 1978, LONDON BAROQUE enjoys the position of being one of the most experienced and long-lived baroque chamber groups. The 2011/12 season contains programmes ranging from early English music to Mozart and contemporaries.  With the core players there will be appearances in England, France, Italy, Spain,  Germany and Turkey.  In addition there will be concerts with Emma Kirkby in England, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and France.

After more than fifteen years recording exclusively for Harmonia Mundi, France, where their releases included the complete trios of Corelli, Handel, Lawes, Purcell, Leclair and CPE Bach, the harpsichord concertos of WF Bach and the complete string music of Pachelbel, they are now with the Swedish label BIS with Vivaldi's trios opus.I, some Christmas music, three discs of Handel with Emma Kirkby, the Purcell Fantasias, Bach's trio sonatas, Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin en concert, the Apothéoses of François Couperin and a disc of Neopolitain recorder concertos with Dan Laurin already released.  In addition a series of trio sonata discs from England, France, Italy and Germany (with one each from the 17th and 18th centuries) is in progress with 17th century England, France and Germany released to date.      

London Baroque has appeared on television in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Holland, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Estonia and Japan.

Werk van Gaspard Le Roux, Jean-Baptiste Lully, François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marin Marais, Jean-Marie Leclair en Michel de Montéclair.

Emma Kirkby - sopraan, Ingrid Seifert - viool, Richard Gwilt - viool, Charles Medlam - bas viool, Steven Devine - klavecimbel.

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