Michel Lambert (ca 1610-1696) Airs de cour (1660, 1689, ca 1692)
François Couperin (1668-1733) Les Nations (1726) – Sonade du quatrième ordre « La Piémontoise »
Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Orpheus Britannicus (éd. 1698 et 1702) – extracts
Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764) Ouverture no 2 en ré majeur, op. 13 (1753)
Jean-Baptiste Stuck (1680-1755) Enfin de ma Philis – cantata (1723)
Grace Durham Mezzo-soprano Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset Harpsichord and direction
This program unveils love’s passion as it is portrayed at the end of the seventeenth century by the two greatest masters of France’s air de cour and England’s song: Michel Lambert (ca. 1610-1696) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Each of the composers’ styles is intimately linked to their manipulating of the French and English languages, for which the British mezzo-soprano Grace Durham proves to be an ideal performer, thanks to her exquisite diction and declamation.
These pieces are juxtaposed with later eighteenth-century works, centered around another great passionate and unbridled love story between two sister countries, France and Italy. The program features the essential instrumental music of François Couperin (1668-1733) and Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764). Christophe Rousset has also chosen to showcase a delightful cantata composed by another “Goûts réunis” adherent, one who is not as Jean-Baptiste Stuck (1680-1755).
