Le secret de Monsieur Marais - Ghielmi and Pianca
Luca Pianca (lute, theorbo) joins Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra and its director Vittorio Ghielmi in a concert of works by Marin Marais (1656-1728).
It looks now that this album appeared back in April 2020. I remember seeing its cover but for whatever reason never had the time to explore it until now.
I’ve been auditioning a lot of new recordings of late that have questionable acoustics/microphone placement. This one out of the gate was so refreshing for sounding superb. The album is a mixture of intimate pieces for lute and viola da gamba with orchestral works. The orchestral works capture a large acoustic space which the ensemble fills when all are playing forte. The solo passages sound focused. There is some loss of detail with the way this was captured, but given the spaces in which this music would have been performed, some reverb would be expected; that we get this “flavor” is for me a plus. The duets, however, are born from a different acoustical signature, they are extremely closely miked and there is no more want of detail, things are clear as one could imagine.
I am not familiar at all with Marais’s ensemble pieces, which was a treat to hear. (According to the Wikipedia, Marais wrote at least four operas). The style, I must admit, differs some from what I am familiar with in his pieces for the viola da gamba. (I’d never have guessed they came from his pen, which is not a slam, but rather speaks to his compositional power.) Ghielmi is an excellent interpreter, I think, with great detail paid to the smaller details that this album thankfully delivers in full resolution. The second track, Les voix humaines and the seventh, Le bijou are tenderly presented. The interpretation for the eighth track, Badinage was more unusual in its almost timid approach, however as a well-known piece, hearing it this way was like hearing it for the first time, for the subtle genius in the way Marais plays with adjacent notes. Having it coupled here with lute in lieu of another viol for me lets the solo part sing, and Pianca’s playing is supportive, well in-sync with Ghielmi.
The fifteenth track, Les regrets is listed as a world-premier recording. Ghielmi here, as elsewhere, plays with a sliding action with his left hand which the more I listen think is one of his signature contributions to his playing which I find I like. It takes on a boozy effect here, but stays, I think, just north of sounding too silly. This glissando, the notes point out, isn’t a Ghielmi-ism, but rather marked in the music. Ghielmi since first recording pieces by Marais, went back to researching the period performance style and with the help of Dr Christoph Urbanetz, Ghielmi has applied the newest research into performance style into his performances on this album. The research took them too to the Sibley Music Library at Eastman (!) which I found interesting, in their examination of the markings by Marais in the music indicating a wide gamut of special musical effects tied to the expanding exploration of the time of rhetorical presentation via music.
The secret, then, is uncovering more detail in Marais’ performance practice and attempting to bring it to light.
Unusually so, the liner notes for this album are fascinating, revealing the tireless efforts of historically-informed musicians in their quest to get closer to the music.
As a “concert”, the juxtaposition of “big ensemble” pieces from operas with the gamba pieces, supported by lute, can be a little shocking, they do evoke different moods. On stage we’d know when the full ensemble was coming back on stage, listening blindly makes for more of a surprise. Thankfully, if you want to group things differently, we can.
I feel ashamed I could have been enjoying this album now for several years going… this is special find (for me) and I warmly recommend it to you!
