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.
here
