Lully: Divertissements

1. Divertissement I
Composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Performed by Cappiccio Stravagante with Jay Bernfeld , Myriam Gevers , Simon Gevers , Guillemette Laurens , Michel Murgier
Conducted by Skip Sempe

2. Divertissement II
Composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Performed by Cappiccio Stravagante with Jay Bernfeld , Myriam Gevers , Simon Gevers , Guillemette Laurens , Michel Murgier
Conducted by Skip Sempe

3. Divertissement III
Composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Performed by Cappiccio Stravagante with Jay Bernfeld , Myriam Gevers , Simon Gevers , Guillemette Laurens , Michel Murgier
Conducted by Skip Sempe

Tracks:

Imperial Fanfare
Royal Entry
Ceremonial Procession
Heroic Procession
Festive Procession
Elector's Procession
Elector's Procession
Majestic Procession
Priere Du Matin
Intrada
Largo - Allegretto
Intrada
Festive Overture
Toccata (Prelude To Orfeo)
Courante For The Entry Of His Imperial Majesty And All The Cavalry
Follia For New Entry Of The Sprinter And Other Equestrian Manoeuvres
Sarabande For The End Of The Ballet
Trumpet Duet
Intrada For The Trombet Und Musicalischen Tafeldienst
Menuet (Trumpet Duet No. 82)
Trumpet Duet No. 8
1812 Overture, Op. 49
Festive Table Music No. 1
Festive Table Music No. 2
Procession At The Imperial Court
Procession No. 3
Festive Procession: The Entry Of The Emperor, 1631
Intrada From Bruck An Der Mur
Procession No. 4
Procession No. 1
Procession (Brilliant, Bright)
Marche Des Nations De Flore
2e Air Du Combat De Lance D?Amadis
La Descente De Mars
La Marche Italienne
Prelude Des Divertissements
Chaconne Du Palais Royal
Menuet Royal
Marche Pour Les Trompettes Seules
Bruit De Trompettes
L?Etendard
Fanfare A Deux Trompettes
Bruit De Guerre
Allemande
Molto Moderato
Signature Tune Of The Old Town Of Bratislava
Fanfara 1
Fanfara 2
Marcia Per La Cavalleria, No. 1
Entree Fanfare
Modern Fanfare
Signature Fanfare
Convention
Fanfare Solo I
Fanfare Solo II
Fanfare Solo III
Fanfare Solo IV
Fanfare Solo V
Fanfare Solo VI
Opening Fanfare
New Palace Fanfare
Welcome Fanfare
Excitement
Short and Concise
Short Fanfare No. 1
Short Fanfare No. 2
Short Fanfare No. 3
Short Fanfare No. 4
Flourish
Il Giorno Del Silenzio
Fanfare For Solo Trumpet And Drum - V
Fanfare For Solo Trumpet And Drum - II
Wrapped In Mystery
Marcia Maestoso
Imperial Procession In Vienna
Procession No. 8: Allegretto

Customer Reviews:

A little too much and poor sound quality.......2006-11-10

Even though this was recorded just a couple of years ago the sound quality is not that good. It sounds like it was recorded in the 70s and outside with the microphones far away. There is nothing too deep here and all the fanfares are fairly short, just lasting a few seconds it seems. I got tired of this pretty quickly and it doesn't stand up to repeated listenings and to be honest a lot of the stuff on here sounds the same. The performances are ok, but nothing special, they sound kind of flat, and they don't really do anything to make this sound exciting like it should. Maybe if the performance and sound was better I would of enjoyed this more.

And now, honored ladies and gentlemen, may we present...!.......2003-07-17

This is what you'd have to call a specialty CD. It consists entirely of fanfares--nothing but fanfares--some of them as short as 10 seconds long. An interesting idea for a CD, perhaps, but I would guess it is primarily for directors of costume dramas, period pieces, and ceremonies of various sorts.

There are 76 fanfares on the disc covering composers ranging from Monteverdi to a trio of modern composers, all of the latter associated with the CD itself. They are played by an outfit called 'The Art of the Trumpet,' a coalescence of 24 Austrian trumpeters and a couple of timpanists (and on occasion a single trombone). Some of the fanfares use the whole group, there are others for solo trumpet, and for all combinations in between. They are led by a trumpeter from Vienna named Leonhard Leeb who is not only one of the trumpeters but also one of the composers--the other two modern composers are Leon Bolten and Joel Modart (I almost typed 'Mozart' but no!...).

Other composers include Salieri, Lully, Biber, J.H. Schmelzer, Pezel (often spelled Petzel here in America), Philidor (yes, the chess master of that name), Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and the multi-talented A. Nony Mous.

The performances are appropriately stirring, ceremonial, attention-grabbing, even mournful (one, Bolten's 'Wrapped in Mystery,' was dedicated to the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001). I would strongly suggest you not listen to the whole CD at one sitting--actually, it's hard to imagine anyone would--because too much B flat can fry your brain unless you yourself are a brass player or bagpiper.

For what it is, though, this CD is excellent.

Tracks:

Prelude pour les trompetes
Chantons les plaisirs charmants
Quittons notre vaine querelle
Chantons tous de l'Amour
Enfin il est en ma puissance
Chere Climene, dis-moi
Je vous aime, Nymphe charmante & Plainte du Dieu Pan
Duo des Nymphes
Laisse-nous en repos, Philene
L'hiver qui nous tourmente
Que le feu des forges s'allume
Trop indiscret Amour
Ah! J'attendrai longtemps
Armide, vous m'allez quitter/Passacaille

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful CD.......2005-09-22

I only would like to say that this is a first class disc. I love classical music since the barroque century to our days. Thank you very much.

Versailles, Le Roi Soleil, et Lully.......2002-06-19

Great music, wonderfully performed, historically accurrate,
what else could we ask for.

A great introduction to the father of French opera.......2002-06-11

Considering his historical importance as the founder of French Baroque opera, it is perhaps surprising that Jean-Baptiste Lully has not received the same degree of attention on disc as his rivals and followers. The revival of French Baroque music which has been such a phenomenon over the last two or three decades has only rarely paid him much attention. Listeners seem to find the harmonic daring of Marc-Antoine Charpentier or the incredible colour and imagination of Jean-Philippe Rameau far more to their taste. Lully's suave, well-crafted music is often dismissed as bland beside the music of these figures and that of Lully's English follower, Purcell. But as this well-filled (78 minutes) disc of extracts from the whole range of his stage music demonstrates, Lully was a considerable and innovative composer in his own right. If you are new to Lully, this is the ideal place to start.

The new recording tells the story of how this ambitious, and frequently ruthless, young Florentine transformed himself into a French citizen and friend of "Le Roi Soleil", just as he transformed the Italian opera of the mid-seventeenth century into something uniquely Gallic. Lully began by catering to the young King Louis XIV's mania for dance with a series of comedies-ballets written in collaboration with Moliere. Extracts from two of them, "Georges Dandin" and "L'Amour Medecin" are included here, where the Italian influence is still strong with plenty of lively comedy. This phase of Lully's career culminated with the amazing five-hour extravaganza, "Psyche", in 1671. Two powerful choruses from this divertissement start the disc.

It was while he was working on "Psyche" that Lully met the librettist Philippe Quinault who was to be his partner in forging a distinctively French form of opera, the 'tragedie lyrique'. Quinault's contribution was vitally important since Lully saw opera as an equal marriage of words and music. The key would be expressive recitative rather than the show arias that dominated the Italian 'opera seria' of the time. The chorus and ballet would also play a major part in the divertissements which ended each act, offering a chance for Lully to show off his musical imagination. Some of the best examples of this come in the extracts from the opera "Isis" (1677) included here. In fact the first audience found the music rather too imaginative and it soon acquired the reputation as a work for connoisseurs only, 'the musicians' opera'. One of the connoisseurs who appreciated it was Henry Purcell. The "Scene de Froid" inspired him to write the wonderfully atmospheric Frost Scene in his "King Arthur" (1691). You can hear immediately what appealed to the Englishman's imagination - the chattering chorus and shivering violins conjure up a vivid impression of extreme cold. It is quickly followed by a scene depicting blazing heat - the smithy of the Chalybes, where the ringing percussion suggests the music of Wagner's Nibelheim two hundred years later. But the most haunting music is a lament by the god Pan for the nymph Syrinx, after her transformation into a reed. It is touchingly accompanied by woodwind and an organ. The characteristic Lullian blend of words and music (which is possibly one reason why many non-French speaking Baroque enthusiasts find a whole Lully opera hard to listen to) is illustrated by scenes from "Armide" and "Roland". In the latter, the hero Roland searches for his lost love Angelique. Lully's music conjures up a beautiful pastoral scene using only smoothly sliding strings, becoming more and more troubled as Roland learns from the names carved into the trees that his beloved has married his rival, Medor. Finally, Roland explodes into rage, his anguish turns to madness and the music rages too. In "Armide", the eponymous heroine, a pagan sorceress, has lulled the Christian hero Renaud asleep so she can stab him to death. However, when she sees him lying defenceless, she falls in love with him and cannot bring herself to commit the murder. Armide's monologue included here, where she hesitates between hatred and love, has always been rightly regarded as one of the high points of the entire French repertoire with its masterly psychological depiction of the tortured enchantress. The disc ends with a love duet between Armide and Renaud from the final act of the opera, followed by another dance, the massive 'grande passecaille'. Its interweaving musical lines have an extraordinary, hypnotic beauty.

Christie's staging and recording of the opera "Atys" is widely considered one of the landmarks in the revival of Lully and this new disc is generally very well performed. My one quibble is with Rinat Shaham who takes the part of Armide - her voice is not really powerful enough to suggest the mighty sorceress, especially when compared with Guillemette Laurens who took the role in the complete recording under Philippe Herreweghe. But otherwise, highly recommended, especially to those who have yet to appreciate Lully's considerable musical gifts. (Brys)

Divertissements
Average customer rating:
Divertissements
Lully , Sempe , and Capriccio Stravagante
Manufacturer: Bmg Int'l
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0001HQ2TA
Release Date: 2004-03-29