Michel de la Barre - Flute Suites - Nancy Hadden with Lucy Carolan, Erin Headley

Considered the best French flautist of his time, Michel de la Barre (c 1675 - 1754) has endeavoured to elevate his instrument and bring it to perfection much as Marin Marais did for viola da gamba. The composer stated this intent himself in the preface to his first book of solo flute suites (which can also boast the first information in print about slurring and ornamentation on the transverse flute). Indeed, the overwhelming majority of his musical output belongs to flute music and it is a known fact that he helped to make this instrument one of the most fashionable of the time and establihed the style that later flourished in the hands of Jacques Hotteterre le Romain and other French flute composers.

It is a pity that this music is so sparsely recorded, for it is full of sweet charm and that measured, well-balanced sensitivity and reserved sensuality which is characteristic of the best in French baroque. This disc contains pieces from different flute books by de la Barre - in later ones he began to call his suites sonatas as was the Italianate fashion of the time.

On the cover is the group portrait of French musicians (by Robert Tournières or François de Troy) where the man with the flute is thought to be de la Barre himself.

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European Baroque Guitar Music (Rome-Paris-Madrid) - Bartolotti, Granata, Corbetta, de Visee, Sanz, Guerau - Pierre Pitzl

The concept behind this album is to showcase the work of best baroque guitar composers in the period when this new instrument swept across Europe and conquered it along with its kings - that is the second half of the 17 C. The composers chosen for this task are Michelangelo Bartolotti, Giovanni Battista Granata (who answer for Rome), Francesco Corbetta (an international star of Italian origin) and his pupil Robert de Visee (Paris), and Francisco Guerau with Gaspar Sanz for Madrid. 
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Henri Hardouin - Complete Four-Part a cappella Masses Vol. 1

Technically the oeuvre of Henri Hardouin (1727-1808) falls outside the baroque period but the antiquated style he practiced has no place within the classical idiom. Unaccompanied masses he wrote were rare for baroque as well - however stile antico was a known phenomenon and had its practitioners and audience, mostly in the provincial chruch. And Rheims Cathedral where Hardouin worked, despite its symbolic importance for the French crown was such a provincial place.
Of course the unaccompanied choral music in stile antico  wasn't identical with the Renaissance polyphony that was its ideal - rather it was a combnation of polyphonic and homophonic elements taken from the baroque idiom. This is also the case with Hardouin: "like most stile antico composers, he abandons strict countepoint once all the voices have entered and moves toward a more homophonic style"(booklet). The overall effect of this music which may have appeared anachronistic in its time is surprisingly modern and rather reminds one of modern composers' experiments with Renaissance idioms.

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La Belle Danse (Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marin Marais, Muffat, Praetorius, Brade, Luigi Rossi) - Capriccio Stravagante, 24 Violons du Roy, Sempe

This anniversary album for Skip Sempe and his Capriccio Stravagante probably brings nothing essentially new - however, for me as a Lullyste it was of interest, particulary due to new recordings of the Superintendent's ouvertures. As Sempe stated in his interview, these ouvertures were all meant to convey different emotions and should therefore sound different. He did indeed make them different - not only from each other, but from other recordings of them too. Some of these experiments sound more curious than convincing (like the ouverture from Roland), but on the whole I rather liked the effect. The album also contains the most lyrical rendition of the passacaille from Armide I've ever heard (at least the first part of it) - even though lyricism wasn't quite Lully's forte here one may rather start to wonder whether it is indeed true.
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Jean-Baptiste Masse - Sonatas for two cellos, Book II - Brandywine Baroque

Jean-Baptiste Masse is one of those unfortunates who's been passed by even the Grove dictionary (and completely undeserved too). True, there is not much known about his life. The tentative dates of his birth and death are inferred indirectly from the publishing dates of his oevre and the payroll of Comédie Française where he worked in the orchestra. He was also a member of 24 Violons du Roy and hence among the most professional and best paid musicians in the kingdom.

France was known for its strong gamba school so the cello had to compete for the place of the main bass string instrument for quite some time. Masse is considered to be the first French composer to write for solo cello, although he did indicate that it could be replaced with gamba or even bassoon.

The second book presented here was dedicated to Monsieur Gaudion de le Grange, councillor to the Parliament and apparently the composer's patron. The fragments from the first book, dedicated in turn to the colleagues from Comédie Française can be found on the album Les Prétentions du Violoncelle recorded by Ricercar Consort.
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