Lalande: Les fontaines de Versailles, court music
While I would be forgiven, I hope, in listening to no other music save for the bigger names, to the music of Bach, of Handel, to other greats such as Mozart or Beethoven, the historically-informed movement won’t last by only recording new seasons by Vivaldi or more interpretations of Bach’s cello suites.
There are of course composers and music that plays historical importance; first operas, first symphonies, etc., but despite the historical draw of some of these pieces, every one of them does not convey the same good taste to a modern audience. I found this release to be one that is historically interesting and tasty both.
The Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble has released a new recording of music by Michel-Richard de Lalande, a name that is bound to be unfamiliar to many. Plucked instrument specialists Stephen Stubbs and Paul O’Dette once again lead the ensemble in this recording that followed their 2016 season. Three pieces appear on the disc: A suite of dances pour les soupers du Roy, a staged work, the Concert d’Esculape, and a second staged work, Les fountaines de Versailles from 1683.
I thought this video did an excellent job at selling the recording.
According to O’Dette, Lalande showed special musical talents as a child and was early-on favored by King Louis XIV. The entire recording, I thought, was very approachable. The music itself, of course, was designed to entertain. The first piece’s raison d’etre is to celebrate King Louis’s gardens; one could imagine walking about the gardens with musicians in tow, admiring the filigree of the garden’s features with that contained within the music. Such a performance would have been difficult, but one can dream.
The second staged work’s function seemed to be a rally for good health of the Dauphine, who was of ill health and supposedly the “second most important woman at the French Court after the Queen.” The liner notes tell us she was pregnant nine times in ten years’ time.
The recorded sound is quite transparent, save for the distance that is perceived from the chorus in the Concert d’Esculape. I wouldn’t go so far to say that the sound is ideal, with headphones it sounds a bit two-dimensional, but the transparency would reveal any shortcomings from the singers and instrumentalists both. Thankfully all the musicians involved perform impeccably. Rarely is the singing so uniformly easy to understand; the oboes, I think, especially, have some of the most challenging licks and perform well with all of the technical demands.
This disc stands as an important testament to the forgotten art that was cultivated in King Louis’s long reign at Versailles. Kudos to the BEMF team for bringing this back to life in performance and now through this vivid recording.
