Naudot: Fantaisies Champêtres

• Label: Collections Chateau de Versailles Spectacles
• Performers: Les Ambassadeurs - Alexis Kossenko, flute, dir.
• Recording: January 2022, Ferme de Villefavard
• Recording: Jean-Michel Olivares

The booklet accompanying this disc provides the context for this music and how it was enjoyed in 18th century Paris. Naudot was a famous flutist but also was a proponent of two more exotic instruments only really celebrated in France: the vielle, a type of hurdy-gurdy and the musette, a bagpipe. The musical language of these otherwise ancient instruments is light, not unlike the surviving flute concerto by Michel Blavet that is well-known. Naudot’s music on this disc could all be realized by the flute or recorder but we are treated to the rare timbres of both musette and vielle, alongside flutes. The amount of color on this disc is as wide as one could hope for.

At first listen I was put off to some of these sounds, to be honest. The musette’s tuning is bizarre, to say nothing else, and how it mixes with the small orchestral sound is becomes a delight, especially with the suspensions Naudot writes in particular in some of his slower movements. I am not expert in baroque bagpipes, but to my ears, Jean-Pierre Van Hees, on record here, is a virtuoso. Once you embrace the sound the skill on display is something.

Which is to say nothing about the skill of Tobie Miller, who is on the record as the performer on the hurdy-gurdy. The instruments come together on the last track of the recording for a Polish chaconne.

Also of special mention is director Alexis Kossenko’s flute performances. Tight. And I felt he captured the spirit of this music well with his direction. There is a flavor in a lot of French baroque music, even when it’s played on more typical instruments. I felt this recording did well to exploit that flavor with these instruments that amplified the stylistic effect upon me.

The liner notes suggest that Naudot could be found near the Pont Neuf in Paris, selling his sheet music. One can imagine some of the sounds wafting their way across the quai adjacent to the bridge. It would certainly be unique enough to lead you to the right place.

This recording is but of one of those examples where choosing an historical approach with period instruments has a profound effect on our understanding of this music. And I mean that from the musette, flutes, down to the style of string instruments used, with bassoon playing in the continuo.

In an era where I feel some of HIPP’s impact on us better understanding music is being watered-down with the use of modern instruments? Thankfully we have artists like Kossenko and his band who are continuing to forge into the archives to bring us this delightful music. It’s galant character is fresh, the timbres applied here are exotic. The kind of substance that we lose in this period to polite melodies in the fast movements make way for more endearing music in the slower movements. It’s my big take away from this composer and his music. Take track 16, from the composer’s opus 17, no. 1 concerto. I don’t know how you can’t smile for nearly five minutes straight.

Looking across Qobuz, Naudot is not well-recorded yet; more oft you are to find him represented on a CD alongside other French composers. I have a feeling this new recording will stay most relevant for those discovering Naudot for years to come.