Jean Philippe Rameau: L’Orchestre de Louis XV

24,00

2 SACD | Booklet 

Κλασική Μουσική 

Alia Vox

23 Δεκεμβρίου 2020

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7619986398822

Jean Philippe Rameau:Les Boréades: orchestral suiteLes Indes galantes OverturePrélude from NaïsZoroastre, RCT 62: Ouverture

Καλλιτέχνες

Manfredo Kraemer (Violin)
Le Concert des Nations (Early Music Ensemble)
Jordi Savall (Μαέστρος)

This recording devoted to Jean-Philippe Rameau and the orchestra of Louis XV follows our previous releases that focussed on the orchestras of Louis XIII and Philidor, and Louis XIV and Lully. Although Rameau’s relationship to Louis XV and his role under the king cannot be compared to those enjoyed by Lully under Louis XIV, if the living memory of the orchestra of King Louis XV of France were to be linked to one musician above all others, that musician would undoubtedly be Jean-Philippe Rameau. Indeed, the extraordinary diversity, richness and inventiveness of the orchestral language, forms and instrumentation that are Rameau’s legacy, particularly in his overtures, symphonies, dances and other “airs à jouer” included in his more than 17 operas, ballets, tragedies and pastorales, justify his being regarded as the most important, innovative and brilliant French composer of his age, especially with regard to orchestral music and opera. Once we had overcome the initial quandary of choosing the pieces, our present selection of four “instrumental suites or symphonies” was taken from four of Rameau’s most important works for the stage: the ballet héroïque, Les Indes Galantes (1735), the pastorale héroïque, Naïs (1748) and the two lyric tragedies Zoroastre (1749) and his last production, Les Boréades (1764). Rameau intimately blends the orchestra with the vocal music to form his scenic ensembles, as well as incorporating all the dances that were so popular with the public during the first half of the 18th century. In the opéra-ballet, as in the pastorale and the lyric tragedy, dance performed a dual function: on the one hand, it could provide an “embellishment” to the scenography of the work, having no direct connection with the action; on the other hand, it could be a dramatic means of moving the action forward or highlighting important moments in the plot.

The preparation and realisation of this project were carried out in the context of our “First Professional, Research and Performance Using Period Instruments Academy.” Organised by CIMA (International Early Music Centre) Foundation and ESMUC, under my own direction, with the collaboration of Manfredo Kraemer and the soloists of Concert des Nations, the Academy’s objective was to foster the participation of young professional musicians from various countries in Europe and America. Our master classes on individual and ensemble playing, sound, articulation, ornamentation, improvisation, phrasing, dynamics and characteristics of dance and tempo in the performance of orchestral music at the time of Rameau informed and enhanced the rehearsals leading up to concerts in Barcelona, Eindhoven, Cologne, Rotterdam, Metz, Paris and Versailles. The present recording was made in the wonderful concert hall of the Arsenal in Metz, followed a few days later by the DVD recording of the concert given at the Théâtre Royal de Versailles.

Jean-Philippe Rameau With very little information on the man and his life, our knowledge of Jean-Philippe Rameau is based primarily on his music and his writings. His contemporaries portray him as rather taciturn; in his Éloge de M. Rameau (Paris, 1764) Guy de Chabanon tells us that the composer often walked the avenues “alone, seeing and seeking out no other person.” Notwithstanding his rather solitary nature (no bad thing for his music), he was not always averse to the company and conversation of men of his own intellectual stature. Yet, the fact is that we know practically nothing about the first 30 years of his life, and nothing of much interest about the first half of his long career. Only a handful of details have come down to us concerning his civil status and the positions that he held. He was born in Dijon and was baptised in that city on 25th September, 1683. From earliest childhood, he received music lessons from his father, the organist at Saint Etienne de Dijon. In Eloge historique de M. Rameau (Dijon 1766), Hughes Maret observes: «…it was the first language that he understood and spoke. No sooner could he move his fingers than he was already running them over the keyboard of a spinet.» The child was sent to the Jesuit Collège des Godrans in Dijon: «He distinguished himself at the school because of his remarkable high spirits; but (…) he spent his time in lessons singing or writing music and (…) did not complete quatrième (middle school).» His parents’ hopes that he would study Law were dashed, and when he was eighteen they sent him to Italy. After a few months in Milan, he returned to France in 1701, where he joined the orchestra of a touring theatrical troupe as first violin. One year later, we find him as deputy organist at the church of Notre-Dame-des-Doms in Avignon, and he was subsequently employed for six years as organist at the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand. However, he left Clermont-Ferrand before the end of his contract and in 1706 he took up an appointment as organist at the Jesuit College in Paris, where he was also organist to the Pères de la Merci (Mercedarians) in the Marais district. It was at this time that he published his first book of Pièces de Clavecin and also successfully applied for the post of organist at Sainte Madeleine de la Cité, although he was unable to accept the position because he could not persuade the church authorities to agree to his taking leave of absence. In 1709 he succeeded his father at Saint Etienne de Dijon. In April 1715 he returned to Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral, where he remained for the next eight years. While there, he composed his first cantatas and his motets for full orchestra, and, notably, published his Traité de l’harmonie, his first major theoretical work, which was to win him European-wide recognition.

At the beginning of 1723, when Rameau was forty years old, he returned to Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1724 the composer’s second collection of Pièces de Clavecin was very successfully published by Boivin, and in 1726 Ballard published his Nouveau système de musique théorique. Finally, a great event took place in his personal life: at the age of forty-six he married eighteen-year-old Marie-Louise Mangot, a musician and, in the words of Maret, «a good, sweet, amiable woman, who made her husband very happy; she was musically gifted, had a very pretty voice and was an accomplished singer.» A few years later, in 1734, Mme Rameau sang in a concert for the queen, the Mercure reporting that «The queen praised her voice and her accomplished singing.» It was also at this time that Rameau began to make his way in the world of opera, ballet and lyric tragedy. In 1727, in an introductory letter to the librettist Houdar de La Motte of the Académie Française he wrote the following: «You will therefore appreciate that I am no novice in the art and that my skill does not appear laboured in my productions, in which I strive to conceal art through art itself; for my aim is to please people of good taste, not intellectuals, since there are many of the former and hardly any of the latter.» It is therefore clear that he was very eager to embark on major operatic projects. Houdar de La Motte kept the composer’s letter, but did not reply to it. It was thanks to Rameau’s friendship with Piron that he made the acquaintance of Le Riche de La Pouplinière, the fermier général (“chief tax officer”), and a great patron and music lover, at whose house Rameau premiered (in April 1733) his first opera Hippolyte et Aricie in a private performance. This work was followed by Les Indes Galantes, his first ballet héroïque, which, from then until the time of his death on 12 September 1764, was followed by a stream of magnificent lyric masterpieces and instrumental pieces for orchestra, which grace some twenty operatic works.

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