Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Sonate à huit H. 548
Marin Marais (ca 1656-1728)
Pièces pour deux violes (Premier Livre de pièces de viole, 1686)
François Couperin (1668-1733)
La Superbe – Sonate en trio (ca 1695)
La Sultane – Sonate en quatuor (ca 1695)
Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747)
Le Tombeau de M. de Lully – Sonate en trio (1695)
Les Talens Lyriques :
Violons : Gilone Gaubert
Violon : Gabriel Grosbard
Viole de gambe : Atsushi Sakaï
Violes de gambe : Marion Martineau
Clavecin et direction : Christophe Rousset
The Talens Lyriques perform for us here a refined anthology of intimate scores in which the instruments combine several parts “in concert” ranging from three to five voices. The sonata is the preferred form here: this nascent genre was gradually building a repertoire of works in the court of Louis XIV at the time, thanks to the efforts of the composers of the Royal Chamber. While we often think of Louis XIV and Versailles in relation to the “Musique de la Chambre du roi”, this formation was in fact created by François I to satisfy his desire to have a permanent band of musicians available to take charge of the musical pleasures of the Court. The group performed in a variety of formats according to circumstance: concerts in the royal apartments, table music, entertainments, ballets and balls.
The sonatas by the composers of the Chambre – Marin Marais, Rebel and François Couperin, and not forgetting Charpentier – make extensive use of viols, of violins – soon to replace the latter – and the harpsichord, the king of all instruments over the next few decades. This is an intimate musical voyage that calls upon a genre borrowed from nearby Italy to illustrate an aesthetic whose timbre and charm are most definitely French.
© Les Talens Lyriques
