Jean-Philippe Rameau - Nouvelle Symphonie (Marc Minkowski)

Information

Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau

1. Castor et Pollux: Ouverture
2. Zoroastre: Air Tendre En Rondeau
3. Les Paladins - Acte II: Entrée Très Gaye Des Troubadours
4. Les Paladins - Acte II: Scène 6 - « Je puis donc me venger moi-même »
5. Les Paladins - Acte II: Scène 8 - Air de Furie
6. Les Indes Galantes - Entrée I - Le Turc généreux: Scène 6 - Air pour les esclaves africains
7. Les Indes Galantes - Entrée III - Les Fleurs: Premier Air pour Zéphire
8. Les Indes Galantes - Entrée III - Les Fleurs: Deuxième Air pour Zéphire
9. Les Indes Galantes - Entrée III - Les Fleurs: Air pour Borée et la Rose
10. Les Indes Galantes - Entrée II - Les Incas du Pérou: Scène 4 - « Soleil, on a détruittes superbes asiles »
11. Acanthe et Céphise: Ouverture
12. Acanthe et Céphise - Acte II: Scène 6 - Entrée [des Chasseurs et des Chasseresses]
13. Acanthe et Céphise - Acte II: Scène 6 - Rigaudons 1, 2 et 3
14. La naissance d'Osiris: Air de musette
15. Dardanus - Acte IV: Scène 4 - « Voici les tristes lieux… Monstre affreux…Quel bruit ! »
16. Pygmalion: Scène 4 - Sarabande pour la Statue
17. Castor et Pollux - Acte I: Scène 4 - Tambourins pour les Spartiates
18. Castor et Pollux - Acte II: Scène 1 - « Nature, Amour, qui partagez mon coeur »
19. Castor et Pollux - Acte II: Scène 5 - Air très gai
20. Castor et Pollux - Acte V: Scène 4 – Chaconne

Florian Sempey, baritone

Les Musiciens du Louvre

Marc Minkowski, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles

https://tickets.chateauversailles-spectacles.fr/merchandising/35281/cvs062-cd-nouvelle-symphonie

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Review

Back in 2006 Marc Minkowski put together an enterprising programme of ballets, dances and other instrumental numbers from Rameau’s stage works and called it Une symphonie imaginaire. Of course this was not the kind of symphony created by Haydn, or even like de Lalande’s Symphonies pour les soupers du roi, namely suites of dances for concerted groups of instruments. Rather, it was simply an attractive programme of instrumental numbers taken from stage works which were primarily vocal. He has now devised a successor, called simply Nouvelle symphonie, but you need to be aware of its predecessor to understand what is going on. The sleevenote explains that this was a project to replace projected performances of the Mozart da Ponte operas which had to be postponed because of the Covid lockdown.

I am no baroque specialist, but I have always enjoyed what of Rameau I have heard, which includes the original Symphonie imaginaire, because of his attractive melodies, rhythmic propulsion, biting harmonies and varied instrumentation. All these virtues are abundantly present in the new disc, and one advance over its predecessor is that we have a few vocal numbers, sung by the baritone Florian Sempey, who is completely inside the idiom as well as being a native French speaker.

The orchestra is a large one for the time, with, for example, four each of flutes and bassoons. There are even clarinets, then a new instrument, in some numbers – you will hear them first in the overture to Acanthe et Céphise. The orchestral playing is wonderful in its vitality and precision and, I should add, in its intonation, which we have not always had with period instruments. Rameau revels in orchestral colour, frequently allowing the wind instruments to shine and writing passages of extreme virtuosity for the strings, which are executed with aplomb.

There is a wide variety of moods in these twenty numbers. For example some are stately, some fiery, some soothing and gentle, one or two intensely dramatic and one hesitant and questing. The four vocal numbers are interspersed among the instrumental ones. By some way the longest of these, and the longest piece here, is a whole scena from Les Indes Galantes, Huascar’s hymn to the sun, whose temple has been destroyed. However, for me even more impressive, and indeed the climax of the whole programme, is Anténor’s Act IV aria from the 1739 version of Dardanus, in which he confronts the monster which has been sent by Neptune to ravage the coast.

The recording quality is excellent and the presentation exemplary, including useful essays, the composition of the orchestra and the texts of the vocal numbers in French, English and German. This deserves to have an success equal to that of Minkowski’s first Symphonie.

-- Stephen Barber, MusicWeb International

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Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764) was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin. Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Philippe_Rameau

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Marc Minkowski (born 4 October 1962 in Paris) is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works. He began his musical career as a bassoonist for René Clemencic's Clemencic Consort and Philippe Pierlot's Ricercar Consort. In 1982 Minkowski formed "Les Musiciens du Louvre", an orchestra dedicated to showcasing French Baroque music. From 2008 to 2012, Minkowski was music director of Sinfonia Varsovia. His recordings have been issued by Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, EMI's Virgin Classics and Naïve Records.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Minkowski

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