{oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna - Music of the Warsaw Castle - Music of French Masters (2017)

Jean-Baptiste Lully - Suite from the Opera 'Armide' (LWV 71)
1		I. Ouverture	
2		II. Air	
3		III. Gavotte	
4		IV. Passacaglia	
5		V. Entrée	
6		VI. Air	
7		VII. Sarabande	

8		François Couperin - Sonata en Quatour La Sultane

Marin Marais - Suite from the Opera 'Ariane et Bacchus'
9		I. Entrée pour servir d'Entr'act	
10		II. Premier Air pour Suite de la Nimphe	
11		III. Chaconne	

Michel Corrette - Concerto in D Major 'Le Phénix'
12		I. Allegro	
13		II. Adagio	
14		III. Allegro	

André Campra - Suite from the Opera 'Tancrede'
15		I. Ouverture	
16		II. Air des Guerriers	
17		III. Air des Plaisirs	
18		IV. Grand Air	
19		V. 2éme Air-viste

{oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna
Krzysztof Firlus - viola da gamba
Martyna Pastuszka - violin, concertmaster

Recorded: 23 October 2015
Recording Venue: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Chamber Hall, Katowice, Poland

No other monarch shaped the 17th and 18th centuries as much as Louis XIV, who set architectural and aesthetic standards with his magnificent palace of Versailles. The music that resounded there also reached an unprecedented bloom. So it is only logical that Martyna Pastuszka and Krzystof Firlus played French Baroque works in the premises of the almost equally magnificent Warsaw Castle. ---jpc.de

Żaden inny monarcha nie ukształtował XVII i XVIII wieku w takim stopniu jak Ludwik XIV, który wyznaczył standardy architektoniczne i estetyczne w swoim wspaniałym pałacu w Wersalu. Również muzyka, która tam zabrzmiała, znalazła się w nigdy nieosiągniętym rozkwicie. Logiczne jest więc, że Martyna Pastuszka i Krzystof Firlus pozwolili, by dzieła francuskiego baroku zabrzmiały w pomieszczeniach niemal równie wspaniałego warszawskiego Zamku. ---jpc.de

Essentially this is a disc of extracts from two concerts given by the curiously named {oh!} or Orkiestra Historyczna, a Polish period instrument band. Their choice of headline name looks so much like a print-coding error message that I had to look them up to be sure I was not mistaken. It is at least distinctive! These musicians are very skilled and include the gamba player Krysztof Firlus about whom I was so enthusiastic in a recent review of Gamba Sonatas on Dux 1471. The two different concerts are clearly audible, the one in the castle being more closely miked and using a smaller band.

The music of Lully for his great opera Armide is the best known of the items and, partly as a result of its liveliness and its percussion, is more attractive listening. Lully was very much a master of the operatic stage and if these seven movements encourage listeners to try out the entire opera it will have done a fine job. The smaller suite by Lully's protégé Marin Marais from his opera Ariane et Bacchus is not equally appealing, indeed I found it somewhat dour by comparison. I am impressed by Marais' music for viol but get the impression that he was not so enthused by the more public requirements of the opera. He seems to have written few and does not appear much in the history of Baroque opera. Campra's suite is more attractive, as might be expected from a considerably more productive, indeed inventive composer of stage music. Between Lully and Rameau Campra looms large.

The short Sonata en Quatour by Couperin, though the product of a major figure, is not of his best. Corrette's short concerto Le Phénix is most entertaining and gives the lower strings a lot of work to do. These pieces make up the CD to just over an hour and give the solo players a chance to show their skills. I cannot say this is an essential purchase but if this sort of French Baroque music is your thing, you will enjoy expanding your knowledge of some lesser known music in these lively performances. The engineers have done a good job of providing detail and space. The notes are fairly informative but the English translation leaves something to be desired. ---Dave Billinge, musicweb-international.com

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From: http://makdelart.blogspot.com

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