Monteverdi / Baschenis Ensemble - Scherzi Musicali - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The young French cellist Edgar Moreau, an established Erato artist, is joined by his siblings - the violinists Raphaëlle and David and the pianist Jérémie - for Dvorák's five Bagatelles op 47 and Korngold's Suite op 23. As David points out, works for the combination of two violins, cello and piano are unusual InchThese are wonderful pieces that are rarely played, so this is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on them.Inch When it comes to playing as a family, Edgar feels that InchThere's something that works almost instinctively,Inch while Raphaëlle explains that InchWe don't need to look at each other, and we breathe together in a certain way. There's something very strong about it.Inch Completing the programme are transcriptions of much-loved operatic arias from Dvorák's Rusalka and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, performed by Edgar and Jérémie

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's drama in miniature Actéon retells the myth of the hunter who was punished by Diana for having surprised the goddess while she was bathing. Actéon was originally composed for a countertenor, but Charpentier reworked the piece a few months later and then entrusted the title role to a treble. Set for a mix of performers that Charpentier liked to use often-a few singers, two violins, two flutes, and basso continuo-Actéon and Actéon changé en Biche reveal all his dramatic and expressive skills. Scherzi Musicali now presents a comparison of these two versions the second version is recorded here for the first time.

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.