Rameau: Dardanus; Le Temple de la Gloire (Orchestral Suites)
Editorial Reviews
Album Description
This new CBC Records release of orchestral suites from two stage works by Jean-Philippe Rameau marks the first occasion on which violinist and Francophile, Jeanne Lamon, and the Tafelmusik Orchestra, Torontos award-winning period instrument orchestra, have turned their attention to music of the French baroque. The two suites featured on this CD are drawn from Rameaus epic five-act "tragédie en musique," Dardanus, and from the less familiar "opéra-ballet," Le Temple de la Gloire.
Rameau: Dardanus; Le Temple de la Gloire (Orchestral Suites), Music, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, French Baroque Opera, Opera
Average customer rating:
- Love it!
- Fantastic!
- Rameau, Minkowski: an intelligent concert!
- A beautiful bit of late Baroque Color
- A hoot!
|
Rameau: Une Symphonie Imaginaire
Manufacturer: Archiv Produktion
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
Ballets
| Ballets & Dances
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Sextets
| Chamber Music
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Chamber Music
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Rameau
| Rameau, Jean Philippe
| ( R )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Ballets & Dances
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Chamber Music
| Forms & Genres
| Classical (c.1770-1830)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
French
| Languages
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
Similar Items:
- Rameau: Orchestral Suites (vol. 1)
- Vivaldi: Bajazet [Includes Bonus DVD]
- Rameau: Ballet Suites
- Biber: Missa Christi resurgentis
- Jean-Baptiste Lully: L'Orchestre du Roi Soleil
ASIN: B000935TV8
Release Date: 2005-06-14 |
Tracks:
- Ouverture
- Scene Funebre
- Air Tendre
- Tambourins I & II
- Air Tendre Pour Les Muses
- Contredanse
- Air Gracieux
- Gavottes I & II
- Orage
- Prelude
- La Poule
- Musette
- Ritournelle
- Riguadons I & II
- Danse Des Sauvages
- Entre De Polymnie
- Chaconne
Customer Reviews:
Love it!.......2006-11-10
Love it, love it, love it. Have not stopped playing it since it arrived and haven't gotten sick of it yet either. I bought it because I heard just one track briefly on the radio - bit of a gamble but it paid off. Great to drive to! Love the fast violin playing and the french horns. Rameau was one cool dude. Can't wait to share it with my dad. Am even wondering if I could wire the garage for sound so we can listen to Rameau while working there over Christmas! (Sorry this is not a high brow, classical music critic kind of review with lots of technical observations - I'm just a passionate classical music lover speaking from the heart).
Fantastic!.......2006-07-15
Great,I heard this piece on ABC Classic fm yesterday,the 14th of July....Amazon is a day late.Thank you to the programmer,they often use the savage dance as a theme.I must have this CD the thumping tympani and the tambourine really brightens up my day.I didn't even know there was a fugal bassoon movement!
The true french baroque is far better than any thing Handel could wright or borrow.Vivre Rameau!Beautifully played by all,the tempo and ornamentation's are perfect in all parts.Vivre Les Musciens du Louvre!Vivre Motorola for having a camera on their phones so I don't have to remember how to spell in french.
I do not work for any party mentioned.
Rameau, Minkowski: an intelligent concert!.......2006-04-14
Minkowki dedicated this album to his father, Dr. Alexandre Minkowski. The symphony imaginaire recorded live, is for him a personal intimate selection. This is intelligent, sensitive and extremely well played music by Rameau.
I stumbled upon this recording after being impressed by the last Bartoli recording with Les Musiciens du Louvre. Happy me!
The SACD is worth it.
A beautiful bit of late Baroque Color.......2005-09-12
I plan to give copies of this CD to my friends whose musical taste froze 35 years ago and who think of Baroque music as just so much "sewing machine music". Rameau was an imaginative instrumental colorist, and these dance pieces, taken from several of his operas and ballets, show him at his best in that regard.
While the conceit of calling this a "symphony" may seem strange, the pieces are arranged to form a nice sequence and, most importantly, are engagingly played by this early music ensemble. The interpretation is lively and the playing stylish. The sonics are detailed without being analytical.
I would recommend this to anyone as an introduction to the joys of French Baroque, but would encourage a follow-up purchase of one of the full operas.
A hoot!.......2005-08-20
Within a few seconds after pressing the "play" button for this CD, the sound of a percussionist beating the tar out of the tympani emergeged from my speakers. The waps and thumps are intermittenly interrupted by an orchestra on steroids. From there this production goes on a musical romp that I regret hearing come to an end. I'm not sure if this is authentic French baroque; but as a musical listening experience it is a blast. Great sound. Great energy. Wonderful music.
Average customer rating:
- Sheer Beauty for the Ears
- Authenticity can sound great as well!
- a little world of baroque sound
- Wonderful relaxing music.
- -
|
Casanova
Manufacturer: Hollywood Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
All Works by Albinoni
| Albinoni, Tomaso
| ( A )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Corelli
| Corelli, Arcangelo
| ( C )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Paisiello
| Paisiello, Giovanni
| ( P )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Rameau
| Rameau, Jean Philippe
| ( R )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Vivaldi
| Vivaldi, Antonio
| ( V )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Concertos
| Forms & Genres
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Classical (c.1770-1830)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Harpsichord
| Keyboard
| Instruments
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Oboe
| Reeds & Winds
| Instruments
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Violin
| Strings
| Instruments
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Chamber Music
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Latin Pop
| Latin Music
| Styles
| Music
General
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
French
| Languages
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
Italian
| Languages
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
Movie Scores
| Soundtracks
| Styles
| Music
Movie Soundtracks
| Soundtracks
| Styles
| Music
General
| Soundtracks
| Styles
| Music
Similar Items:
- Casanova
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Pride & Prejudice
- Mrs. Henderson Presents
- Match Point
ASIN: B000BYR9YK
Release Date: 2005-12-20 |
Tracks:
- An Untold Story: Assaggio No.1 In G Minor - Johann Helmich Roman
- The Legend Of Casanova: Tambourins I/II From Daro - Jean-Philippe Rameau
- I Yield To Love: Cello Concerto No.3 In D Minor - Leonardo Leo
- Eternal Damnation: Overture From Les Fetes De Polymnie/Overture From Platee/Overture From Zoroastre - Jean-Philippe Rameau
- The Doge's Decree: Concerto In C Major - Antonio Vivaldi
- A Venetian Virgin - Alexandre Desplat
- San Cremori At Dawn: Concerto In C Major For Harpsicord And Strings - Giovanni Paisiello
- A Lover's Duel: Overture From La Madrilena - Vicente Martin Y Soler
- A Terrible Mistake: Concerto A 5, Op.9, No.4 - Tomaso Albinoni
- A Secret Lover?: Sinfonia From The Opera Farnace - Antonio Vivaldi
- Marriage Is A Safe Haven: Concerto A 5, Op.9 No.4 - Tomaso Albinoni
- Trailing Guardi: Sonata For Violin And Bassocontinuo, Op.5 No.11 In E Minor - Arcangelo Corelli
- The Noble Pig: Concerto Per Quartetto No.8 - Francesco Durante
- Paprizzio's Arrival: Concerto A 5, Op.9 No.2 In D Minor - Tomaso Albinoni
- Inquisitor Pucci - Alexandre Desplat
- : Concerto A 5, Op.9 No.4 - Tomaso Albinoni
- A Big Idea: Harpsicord Concerto In B Flat Major - Francesco Durante
- A Nom De Plume/Carnivale!: Concerto A 5, Op.9 No.6 In G Major/Bouree From Les Plaisirs Champetres - Tomaso Albinoni
- The Plume's Nom Is Casanova! - Sonny Kompanek
- Dancing At The Doge's Ball: Riguadon From Water Music Suite, No.3 In G Major/Bouree From Music For Royal Fireworks/Loure From Tafelmusik1 - George Frideric Handel
- One Step Closer To Heaven: Concerto A 5, Op.9 No.4 In A Major - Tomaso Albinoni
- Casanova's Confession: Sonata Op.5 No.7 In D Minor - Arcangelo Corelli
- The Hanging: Violin Concerto 'Il Cimento Dell'Armonia E Dell'INvenzione' Op.8 No.11 In D Major - Antonio Vivaldi
- A Great Escape: Overture From Zais/Overture From Nais/Overture From Achante Et Cephise Ou La Sympathie - Jean-Philippe Rameau
- My Place Is With Casanova: Overture From Le Temple De La Gloire/Overture From Zais/Sonata For Violin And Bassocontinuo, Op.5 No.7 In D Minor - Arcangelo Corelli
- All's Well...:Concerto A 5, Op.9 No.4 In A Major - Tomaso Albinoni
Amazon.com
The action in this tale about the 18th century adventurer and (at least in popular lore) seducer is set in Cassanova's native Venice in the mid-1700s, so it makes sense that the soundtrack would be loaded with Baroque pieces. The Venice-based Tomaso Albinoni is featured prominentaly, along with heavyweights such as Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Baptiste Rameau, and George Frideric Handel, and lesser-known composers such as Arcangelo Corelli, Francesco Durante, and Alexandre Desplat. Er, actually Desplat is a contemporary French film composer who also released his score for the couldn't-be-more-different Syriana shortly after Casanova came out. Of the two pieces he penned here, "A Venetian Virgin" is in pure Baroque style, while "Inquisitor Pucci" betrays a more modern film-music vibe. Meanwhile, orchestrator Sonny Kompanek rearranged a couple of the tracks and authored the tense "The Plume's Nom Is Casanova," which doesn't sound embarrassing sandwiched between pieces by Albinoni and Handel. Overall, it would have been nice to get longer excerpts from the pieces--many feel chopped into too-small fragments--but the music's innate grace and elegance can't be beat for a period film. Or for any film, really: Vivaldi's Concerto in C Major ("The Doge's Decree") will be familiar to buffs, who will remember it featuring prominently in the Dustin Hoffman-¬Meryl Streep showdown Kramer vs. Kramer back in 1979. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Customer Reviews:
Sheer Beauty for the Ears.......2006-07-25
For those that purchased this CD, I need not get into how masterfully infectious the movie was. After the first viewing, I found it charming, but after the second, I was hooked by the witty, clever story holding fun twists all along the way. So while I could go on and on about the movie and all of its wonderful aspects, the score was simply priceless. Apt in every scene, and all done with incredible baroque music that I had never had the opportunity of hearing before the film.
The disc walks you through the movie with no changes that I could tell from the original score. The only omission I found was that the song dubbed "Casanova's Theme" is played in much greater length in the closing credits, and that didn't seem to make it to the CD. Not a terrible loss.
Authenticity can sound great as well!.......2006-07-11
As an avid baroque music listener and performer, I can attest to the delightfully pleasing performances on the soundtrack as well as the painstakingly accurate performance practices utilized in the recording of this soundtrack.
The producers of this film fortunately went to the trouble of hiring some of the top period performance musician-specialists in the country (perhaps in the entire world) to record the soundtrack to Casanova. I know, because several of them were faculty members of the Oberlin Conservatory Baroque Performance Institute who went AWOL to Hollywood in June 2005 for the recording sessions. We all forgave them, and were actually quite excited that period music performance was having its day on the silver screen.
Do not miss this exquisite potpourri of wonderful baroque composers' works performed as closely as humanly possible to the way that they heard their works during their lifetimes! The film may not have been intended to be historically accurate (part of the fun), but the music certainly ended up that way. Not only that, but it sounds heavenly (unlike Casanova's antics) and up-to-date, not musty and old as if it were sealed in a museum case.
a little world of baroque sound.......2006-02-26
Lots of interesting baroque music unknown to me and
put together in dramatic sequences that add zest and
class to the listening experience. Also wonderful to
play in auto while driving thru boring country or in
slow moving traffic!
This CD will get a lot of play from me.
5 Stars!
Wonderful relaxing music........2006-02-25
Saw the movie and had to have the soundtrack. Great music to relax by. When you need to get away from the cares of the day the classics can't be beat. The producers of this movie certainly chose wonderful music to accompany it.
-.......2006-02-18
Good music but each is too short.
The original version of each may be better.
Average customer rating:
- Unexpectedly 'new' Style
- A great walk-through Rameau's ouvertures
- Cold heat
- A constant pleasure
- excellent
|
Rameau - Overtures / Christophe Rousset, Les talens lyriques
Jean-Philippe Rameau , Les talens lyriques , and Christophe Rousset
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
Ballets
| Ballets & Dances
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Rameau
| Rameau, Jean Philippe
| ( R )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Ballets & Dances
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Rousset, Christophe
| ( R )
| Featured Performers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
French
| Languages
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
The Decca Records Store
| Specialty Stores
| Music
Similar Items:
- Rameau: Une Symphonie Imaginaire
- Rameau - Orchestral Suites ~ Naïs · Zoroastre / Orchestra of the 18th Century · Brüggen
- Rameau: Orchestral Suites (vol. 1)
- Rameau - Orchestral Suites from Naïs & Le Temple de la Gloire / PBO · McGegan
- Rameau - Les Indes Galantes, Suites d'orchestre / La Chapelle Royale · Herreweghe
ASIN: B000004CYY
Release Date: 1997-07-15 |
Tracks:
- Ouvertures: Les Fetes de Polymnie
- Ouvertures: Les Indes galantes
- Ouvertures: Zais
- Ouvertures: Castor et Pollux
- Ouvertures: Nais
- Ouvertures: Platee
- Ouvertures: Les Talens lyriques (Les Fetes d'Hebe)
- Ouvertures: Zoroastre
- Ouvertures: Dardanus
- Ouvertures: Les Paladins
- Ouvertures: Hippolyte et Aricie
- Ouvertures: Le Temple de la Gloire
- Ouvertures: Pigmalion
- Ouvertures: Les Surprises de l'Amour - Prologue (Le Retour d'Astree)
- Ouvertures: Les Fetes de l'Hymen de l'Amour, ou Les Dieux d'Egypte
- Ouvertures: Les Surprises de l'Amour - Acte I (L'Enlevement d'Adonis)
- Ouvertures: Acante et Cephise, ou La Sympathie
Amazon.com essential recording
Rameau waited until he was nearly 50 before writing his first opera, but after that there was no holding him back. One of the great masters of the Baroque orchestra (if not the greatest), he wrote overtures to theater works that call on a lavish array of instruments and use them all with an extraordinary feel for color and style. Although he was the major musical theorist of his day, Rameau's works sound wholly fresh and spontaneous, with numerous surprising twists and turns of phrase where you least expect them. Christophe Rousset leads his enthusiastic band of authentic instrument players in performances that will enchant all Baroque music fans. --David Hurwitz
Customer Reviews:
Unexpectedly 'new' Style.......2007-01-20
I am not very familiar wiht Jean-Philippe Rameau's music, so when I looked at his dates, I expected something which sounded a lot like Henry Purcell. I was quite taken aback when the music I heard was nowhere near as wooden or 'mannered' as Purcell's work, almost all of which sounds like another version of the piece used as the theme to Masterpiece theatre.
The greatest surprise was saved until the end, with the Overture to 'Acante et Cephise, ou La Sympathie'. The surprising tympany accents made it sound positively 19th century, and the fluid strings supported that notion. It almost sounds as if Rameau skipped right over Mozart to Beethoven. Of course, Rameau is not nearly as delicate or sweet as Mozart, but this is still a welcome gift from the 18th century.
A great walk-through Rameau's ouvertures.......2006-09-10
Jean-Philippe Rameau was certainly a vastly greater composer of orchestral music than Handel, that's for sure!
This excellent and beguiling collection of ouvertures is nearly complete, as far as I can tell - very few of the opera ouvertures Rameau wrote are not here. The performances are first class colourful and alive. There are those delicate and expressive moments we come to expect from a French Baroque composer, movements of great energy and the occasional fiery manifestations of "Sturm und Drang", too. Rameau's earliest ouvertures, Hippolyte et Aricie and Les Indes Galantes, show us a fully formed composer at the height of his powers - those powers only seemed to increase through Rameau's operatic career and his most daring, adventurous and fresh music composed in his old age.
Unlike Handel's ouvertures, which usually features oboes, bassoon, strings and basso continuo, Jean-Philippe Rameau used an orchestra sometimes featuring: piccolo, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, percussion and string orchestra - in fact an orchestra larger and more diverse than anything normally available to Franz Joseph Haydn or W. A. Mozart.
I have listened to this album many times since I first bought it and it always a delight to return to it. It can be "dipped into" or listened to in its entirety.
I hope Christophe Rousset and his talented Les Talens Lyriques eventually records some complete opera of Rameau for CD or DVD. Rousset's Monteverdi "L'incoronazione di Poppea" DVD is excellent and possibly the best DVD recording of that work currently available.
Cold heat.......2002-09-08
The French Baroque Roccoco School of music has suffered in comparison to the most vibrant Italian competition, or Bach and Handel dexterity and brilliance, not to mention soul enhancing character of their works. That is unfortunate since some of the graduates of that French period like Rameau have a record that is far from insignificant. But Rameau wrote for a public that liked mental games, was more subdued and courtly. The fire had to be contained. But the intelligence and brilliance did not have to be contained. If you want to be convinced of this, do yourself a favor and get this record. I will warn you, you might need to listen to it a few times, to let it grow on you, but next thing you know you might be purchasing some of these great operas. Oh! And the quality of the recording is impeccable, though a little bit low for my taste.
A constant pleasure.......2000-12-14
A collection of overtures to operas written by a Baroque composer whose name is well known but whose music is lesser known may not be high on everyone's 'want' list, but I urge you to take a chance on this CD. I obtained this disc as part of a 15-free-CDs introductory offer to a mail order CD club but it has turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This is music that seems to get better the more you hear it and ruminate over it afterward. Rameau is obviously a composer of considerable ingenuity and resource. These ouvertures positively bubble with effervescence and there is a refreshing lack of sameness among them. The period instrument group Les Talens Lyrique (named after one of the ouvertures on this CD) are obviously enthusiastic about this music and their playing is a joy. There is an appealing, analogue-like warmth about the recording, too.
excellent.......2000-12-08
My favorite CD in my collection, but I lost the disc so I have to order a new copy!
Average customer rating:
- RAMEAU - MINKOWSKI & Les Musiciens du Louvre: sur le Ouvre posthume
|
Rameau: Une Symphonie imaginaire [Hybrid SACD]
Manufacturer: Archiv Produktion
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
Ballets
| Ballets & Dances
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Sextets
| Chamber Music
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Chamber Music
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
All Works by Rameau
| Rameau, Jean Philippe
| ( R )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Ballets & Dances
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Chamber Music
| Forms & Genres
| Classical (c.1770-1830)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
French
| Languages
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
Similar Items:
- J.S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, BWV 1001-1006
- Concerto Veneziano [Hybrid SACD]
- Mozart: Flute Concertos; Rondo; Andante [Includes the Bis 2005 Catalog] [Hybrid SACD]
- The Chopin Ballades & Scherzos [Hybrid SACD]
- Bach: The Complete Orchestral Suites [Hybrid SACD]
ASIN: B00083FYQE
Release Date: 2005-07-12 |
Customer Reviews:
RAMEAU - MINKOWSKI & Les Musiciens du Louvre: sur le Ouvre posthume.......2006-12-28
Before Rameau (1683-1764) there was instrumentation; after Rameau, there was orchestration. Then came Mozart, Beethoven, von Weber, Berlioz, Fry, Lizts, Gottschalk, Wagner, Lèfébure-Wélly, Franck, Bruckner, Mahler, and the rest is part of the world's music history.
In the beginning, Rameau was an expert organist intensely interested with the exploration of new instrumental possibilities in music which he had already explored with organ music both as an instrumentalist and composer. He treated the organ as a great symphonic instrument rather than a polyphonic instrument. What we have here is what we call now "homophonic" music. He was not the only one to enter this form of thinking and composing; indeed there were others, but that does not take any away from his enormous accomplishments and advances in music theory.
Rameau was throughly contemporary with François Couperin Le Grand (1668-1733), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Giussepe Tartini (1692-1770), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) and many other very well known composers of the early and mid 1700's. There is no doubt that for the most part all of the above knew in great detail about each other's whereabouts and current musical developments; assimilation of each other's theoretical and compositional ideas and forms was a widely accepted practice during that time period.
Rameau as a matter of fact did not discover anything whether in music and/or instrumental sound acoustics but formally stated sound and acoustic "combinations" which if and when executed by composer and instrumentalists added to the clarity of the whole.
As our old friend Mr. Plato (428-347 BC) remarked (I hope more than once), the foundation of anything in this universe (music included) in itself is indifferent to the existence of our universe. Indeed, indifferent to our minds and evanescent existence. Put it another way, music would exist even if musicians and/or we the listeners did not. I know this could be a debatable philosophical point for some but that's a theme for another discussion somewhere else.
With his compositions Rameau explored first at the organ and then with opera, ballet and overtures orchestral and musical methods, and acoustic forms which in the end provided other musicians/composers in general with highly idealized representations of the real world, whatever the real world of acoustics in reality can be said to be.
There is so much music (of all kinds), and composers which to this date knowingly or not, having adopted and assimilated Rameau's dictums have achieved such a mastery of acoustic "combinations" with effects of space, sonority, tone placement, antiphony, echo, silence, etc., etc, that have made this a wonderful world. One that Rameau re-discovered and which now-a-days is an integral and essential part of recognized music theory.
Rameau wrote a number of "treatises" and books on music theory; the two most important are "Traité de l'harmonie" and "Gènération harmonique." In these two studies he described or "explicated" exhaustively all known to him blends of timbres/tones, space and reverberation combinations; to this day no musician could do without them! His main point was that melody and harmony are not independent of each other. These musical combinations were known by many, but Rameau was the first to write about them and put them to practice in a formal fashion - again - as far as we know now.
I may add here that organists in general knew what Rameau knew; organistis knew very well how to score and employ acoustics and concomitant specific reverberation times and silences to obtain desired sound effects with their organ compositions. J.S. Bach was a master of this technique incidentally. It was and still is part of every good organist to "have the knowledge" and the skills to partake with organ music in such way; we also intuitively know when an organist is not for whatever reason applying these acoustic principles during a performance, generally to everybody's dislike.
We must add here that Archangelo Corelli, Giuseppe Tartini and J.S. Bach for example scored "in scordatura" for string instruments, especially for viola da gambas but also for violins. Scoring "in scordatura" basically produces the same acoustical effects and results as those organists obtained with their organs;"in scordatura" in plain musical language means "mis-tuning." Scoring in this manner was a common practice during the 1600 and 1700's because it produced acoustical effects of the desired kind, that is, natural sound effects.
Never-the-less, Rameau was apparently the first one to write and compose music following "natural" sound combinations without the need for scordatura. This is Rameau's legacy for the ages.
He was (again, probably) the first to describe, justify and explain harmonic practice in music whithin a coherent system derived from the "nature" of sounds. It had been there all the time and Rameau just "nurtured" the idea. Again, we have here another example of "nature" and "nurture." Remember Mr. Plato's dictum?
Very few composers before Rameau had conciously exposed and/or utilized that knowledge aside for the ocassional "in scordatura." We must resort here to Nikolaus Harnoncourt's "The Musical Dialogue - Thoughts on Monteverdi, Bach and Mozart" and Paul Bekker's "The Orchestra" to fully understand the inner works of this process. I highly recommend lecture of these two capital books as well as Dr. Philip Gossett's English translation of Rameau's "Traité de l'harmonie."
With this SACD Marc Minkowski and his Les Musiciens de Louvre amply succeed in the representation of Rameau's orchestral music.
Rameau never wrote a symphony as such; let's consider that for a moment. At about the same time J.S. Bach was calling some of his compositions "Symphonias", but it was not ultil his son Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788) threw away the traditional polyphonic media (instrumentation) or subordinated them to the dominant idea of harmonic development that a "formal" symphonic form appeared; we call this "homophonic" music incidentally.
There were no symphonies until that time (C.P.E. Bach's time) but only "concertos" of the "grosso" kind. Concerti grossi (Italian for big concerts) were a popular form of Baroque music whereby an orchestra ensemble passed musical material between an small group of soloists (the concertino) and the full orchestra (the ripieno).
That's the main reason for the added title to this SACD: "...un symphonie imaginaire." This SACD is about symphonies; symphonies which were never formally scored by Rameau. We are asked here and now to think about this music as being an imaginary symphony...or pieces of symphonies, or opera...ballets. Indeed not an easy proposition but, just after the first few bars of the the first track we realize that Rameau had a new perspective in music; his music was all about orchestration.
Did Minkowski and his group succeed in their mission? Obviously the answer is a resounding yes! Minkowski and his musicians created these imaginary symphonies out of some orchestral music originally written for operas and ballets, and some specific overtures. These were orchestral parts composed during the last thirty years of Ramaeau's life. Previously he had only composed keyboard music mostly for organs.
Presently, the question might be as follows: where do we begin with this SACD?
The instruments: the instruments are all original period instruments
and tuned to a prevalent a'= 415 Hz (so it's stated in the notes and my chromatic tuner corroborates exactly that) and that's very different than today's a'= ~ 440 Hz. The instrument's sound in this recording is different, totally different, and the tuning of the strings bespeaks well of the mastery of this orchestra's players. Remarkable, it's all I can say!
Minkowski, the conductor. There is no doubt in my mind that he, along with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Andrew Manze, is the dominant figure in Baroque music at the present time. You can not do better than this or these if we include the other two conductors.
The musicians. What can I say about them? That they have perfect pitch? Yes. That they play all the notes? Yes. That their string instruments had to be re-strung to a'= 415 Hz instead of playing "in scordatura"? I think so. Can they play in harmony? This is a great rendition of musical harmony at it's purest form.
I think Rameau with this music and specially it's orchestration showed to the future the shape of things to come. This was the beginning of the end of the Baroque and the start of a new era.
There are no words that could possibly describe the level of excellence which is achieved in this and the other Baroque recordings this conductor and musical group have been involved with. We do know this is the normal state of affairs with Minkowski and the musicians that subordinate to him. This is absolutely perfect.
The sound, again, Archiv has produced another SACD reference recording. It's a true 5.1 DTS recording which means the sound will be coming out of six speakers if played in an SACD player. The total surround sound is as real as one could get and much better and more realistic than the same version in just plain stereo. In my opinion the SACD is far superior than the stereo version.
I would not hesitate for a moment in recommending this SACD or any other that Minkowski and his musicians throw at us. Please hit us again and again with recordings of this caliber.
FINAL WORDS: B U Y I T - NOW.
Average customer rating:
|
Rameau: Dardanus; Le Temple de la Gloire (Orchestral Suites)
Manufacturer: Cbc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
All Works by Rameau
| Rameau, Jean Philippe
| ( R )
| Featured Composers, A-Z
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Baroque (c.1600-1750)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
Chamber Music
| Forms & Genres
| Classical (c.1770-1830)
| Historical Periods
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Chamber Music
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
General
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
French
| Languages
| Opera & Vocal
| Styles
| Music
ASIN: B0000TSR42
Release Date: 2003-12-02 |
Album Description
This new CBC Records release of orchestral suites from two stage works by Jean-Philippe Rameau marks the first occasion on which violinist and Francophile, Jeanne Lamon, and the Tafelmusik Orchestra, Toronto's award-winning period instrument orchestra, have turned their attention to music of the French baroque. The two suites featured on this CD are drawn from Rameau's epic five-act "tragédie en musique," Dardanus, and from the less familiar "opéra-ballet," Le Temple de la Gloire.
Music Review:
- Respighi: Pines, Fountains of Rome, the Birds [Import]
- Richard Wagner: Overtures And Preludes
- Romances: Music of Robert & Clara Schumann
- Russian Cello Sonatas [Import]
- Schütz: Christmas Vespers / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and Players
- Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht; R. Strauss: Metamorphosen
- Schubert - Nachtgesang / Remmert, Gür, Mayers, Scharoun Ensemble, RIAS Kammerchor, Creed
- Seven Mirrors
- Skyward My People Rose: Music of William Grant Still
- Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio / Seasons
Music Review
music review
Music Review
Punx Unite: Leaders of Today
Alternating Currents: Electronic Music from the University of Michigan
Age of Elegence
The Harlem Nutcracker
Amnesia Paris®, Vol. 1 [Import]
Awakening to the Dream
Ao Vivo [Import]
Black Market Music
Around the World [Import]
Bach:Cantatas- 147 & 21
1946
20 Éxitos Originales [Original recording remastered]
Caballero Solitario
Choral Masterworks Series Volume 2
Turn