L'Acheron - Soleils de Septembre - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The viola da gamba enjoyed a degree of popularity in Germany during the 17th century. Not only was it often paired with the violin in compositions in which the two instruments engaged in a dialogue, but it also had it's own repertoire. Johann Michael Nicolai spent most of his life in the service of the court of Stuttgart and left several compositions for ensembles of two or three violas da gamba. Here, L'Acheron presents the complete sonatas and suites, in which the spirit of the Italian sonata is combined with the French suite.

Four eminent figures-François Couperin, Antoine Forqueray, Marin Marais and Jean-Philippe Rameau-gather here like the four aces in an exceptional deck of cards. Through a gallery of musical portraits, Myriam Rignol, Yoko Kawakubo and Julien Wolfs reveal the many facets of these geniuses. From Couperin's refined modesty to Forqueray's tempestuous passion, from Marais's angelic viola da gamba to Rameau's radiant genius, each piece sketches a character, a silhouette, a whole life.The ensemble Les Timbres gracefully interprets the composers' intimate self-portraits, to which their peers respond with reciprocal tributes. This quartet of masters thus regains a vibrant modernity, offering a palette of feelings as striking as it is universal.

Jean-Noël Hamal's musical language is a perfect reflection of this transitional period in which the Baroque galant style merges into the classical style. One senses in Hamal's music a communicative vitality, a charmingly poetic note, a keen sense of elegant melody and a theatricality in dynamic contrasts which in some ways evokes the Mannheim school. As soon as he was able, he exploited the ample space available by writing works for two choirs and two orchestras. He seems also to have had a very pronounced preference for major tonalities (he even went so far as to write an astonishingly cheerful Dies irae in C major) and for very readable harmonies, although these sometimes risk being too predictable or conventional. But he was also capable of being a visionary by their tripartite structure and the autonomous form his symphonies make him a precursor of the classical symphony. He is equally capable of entirely unexpected surprises and attractive details, as is apparent in his motets delivered respecting the practices then in force in Liège by Nicolas Achten and Scherzi Musicali ensemble, mixing subtlety and theatricality.