Reliably great music from Budapest

Michel Pignolet de Montéclair: Jephté, Tragédie, Paris, 1737

I'm so excited every time I see a new recording on Glossa that features the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra, conducted by Gyorgy Vashegyi. I've reviewed four in the past: Rameau in 2019, and again in 2018; and Mondonville in both 2017 and 2016. I've come to expect the highest level of both choral and solo singing, the most stylish, Historically Informed orchestral playing, with superb engineering and really excellent supporting documentation, including libretti and good English translations.

Now it's the turn of Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, and I can encapsulate my review in a single phrase: more of the same! Montéclair is hardly a household name, and I admit never having heard his music before. I know: I don't spend enough time listening to the music of the French Baroque, which is quite surprising considering how enamoured I am of Rameau, Lully, Charpentier and Mondonville. In any case, this is a superb tragic opera, a huge hit from its first performance in 1732 through many revivals (over one hundred performances at the Paris Opéra and the Queen's Concerts at Versailles, over thirty years). And it's no wonder, considering the splendid orchestral and choral effects the composer produces. As well, there was some controversy driving the strong interest in this work, the only operatic work from the periodf based on Biblical stories. I never worry too much about the story in these kinds of stage spectaculars, since there's so much great music to move things along.

This album will be released on March 6, 2020

Woke Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les Indes galantes

Gyorgy Vashegyi's Budapest-based Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra has become my favourite Original Instruments group. They were so good in Mondonville's Grands Motets and Isbé, also from Glossa; more recently they've moved on to the great genius of the French baroque, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and his Naïs.

"I like people", said Voltaire, speaking about Jean-Philippe Rameau, "who know when to drop the sublime in order to banter." In moving from tragedie to "the naïve graces of ballet",  Rameau had taken on the impressively advanced - anti-clerical and anti-imperialist - politics of his librettist Louis Fuzelier. As happens so often, satire can hide revolutionary ideas. This is actually very nearly a "progressive" agenda, even by today's standards (don't get me started on the 2020 Democratic primary), but for someone who made a (good) living flattering the monarchy, it's an interesting side-line.

As in the previous project, Vashegyi and his talented musicians work with the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles. Academic precision never gets in the way of the obvious fun of the project, though. Once again we're treated to great choral and solo singing, again led by soprano Chantal Santon-Jeffery. In a review of another recording of Les Indes galantes, I talk about "the great, dumb fun" of this project, and this is something that would be easy enough to lose. But there's no worry of that here; we get the full deal, and it's fun to go along for the ride.

This album will be released on May 3, 2019.

Marvel before Marvel

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Naïs

The operas of the French baroque are much more accessible to the non-specialist than one might think. It's not only about the music, as gorgeous as it is. With gods, demigods and super-heroes, and an emphasis on special effects and stage machinery, we're more than half-way to today's DC and Marvel-based blockbuster movies. Jean-Philippe Rameau's Naïs is especially appealing, with a story based on Greek myth overlaid with very un-subtle political commentary, or rather, shameless flattery of the King. To further extend its appeal, there are nymphs and shepherds dancing Gavottes, Sarabandes, Contredanses and Tambourins in what I'm sure were spectacular ballets.

Gyorgy Vashegyi's Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, so good in Mondonville's Grands Motets and Isbé, also from Glossa, provide the sumptuous music that keeps the action flowing and the ballet dancers cavorting. The singing is absolute first class, beginning with superb choral singing, and moving throughout the cast. Chantal Santon-Jeffery is superb in the title role.

Though recorded in Budapest, this is a joint project with the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles. Everything is carefully researched to ensure the authenticity of French musical heritage, which in that country is taken extremely seriously. More importantly, this is obviously the result of musicians engaged in and enjoying their music-making.

This album will be released on April 20, 2018.

A pastorale of astonishing beauty

What a great way to start off the New Year! One of the musical highlights of 2016 (and a Top Ten pick of mine) was the Purcell Choir/Orfeo Orchestra recording of Mondonville Grands Motets from György Vashegyi on Glossa. This new 3-CD album of the opera Isbé, premiered in 1742, brings the same musical forces to a work that makes just as positive an impression. Isbé is a pastorale with a libretto by Henri François de La Rivière, and while I never pay much attention to the ins and outs of the plots of these sorts of entertainments, there are plenty of opportunities here for Mondonville to do what he does best: write music, and especially choral music, of astonishing sweetness.

It's not only the Purcell Choir that excels here, though. The Orfeo Orchestra play with style and verve under the direction of Vashegyi, who seems to have a special feeling for French Baroque music that belies the Hungarian origin for the Mondonville projects. One of Mondonville's many accomplishments was his integration of the latest trends in Italian orchestral music into French opera. The innovations of composers like Vivaldi become part of the richness and wonder of Mondonville's presentation. And Vashegyi's vocal soloists impress as well; especially Katherine Watson, who provides a full and rich sound for the title role, but also communicates a full measure of charm.

Elastic, buoyant, ravishing music

This new CD from Glossa, to be released on April 29, 2016, was recorded at the Bela Bartok Concert Hall in Budapest with Hungarian singers, instrumentalists and conductor, but it sounds as authentically French as any recent recording I've heard. This is gorgeous music, and it's hard to believe it's not as popular as Rameau or Handel. In fact, I believe three of these Grands Motets are recording premieres, though there's no indication on the album cover.

Jean-Joseph de Mondonville was born, or at least baptized, on Christmas Day, 1711, which puts him in the generation behind Jean-Philippe Rameau. He was relatively productive as an instrumental and stage composer, but my favourite of his works are the sacred Grands Motets, only nine of which have survived. Judging by the quality of this music, the missing eight Motets are a great loss to the world of music. Of the four Motets included on this disc only one, De profundis, a setting of Psalm 129 from 1748, has been recorded before, as far as I can tell. This work is included in both Edward Higginbottom's 1999 Hyperion disc with Oxford New College Choir, and William Christie's 1997 Erato disc with Les Arts Florissants. I wish I could play the Purcell Choir version, but it's not available on Spotify yet. But I wanted those who don't know Mondonville's Motets to hear what ravishing music this is:



I actually much prefer the Purcell Choir/Orfeo Orchestra version under György Vashegyi to Christie's, as fine as it is. This new disc is fresher and lighter and more alive. Mondonville has such a dancing sound, "the rhythmical elasticity and buoyancy" in John Eliot Gardiner's words, of Baroque music. I like to think that after a hard day at the Concert Spirituel, Mondonville would take his wig off, let his hair down, and play some jazz with his friends. You can hear it in this music.