Les Éléments: Tempêtes, Orages et Fêtes Marines

Le Concert Des Nations

Les Éléments: Tempêtes, Orages et Fêtes Marines
Format
Audio
Publisher
Country
Published
8 January 2016
ISBN
8435408099141

Les Éléments: Tempêtes, Orages et Fêtes Marines

Le Concert Des Nations

This double album is an invitation to explore the forces of nature, so vividly depicted by the composers at the turn of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.

With this stunning (and first) recording of Jean-Fery Rebel’s Les Elements, Jordi Savall displays his unmatched vision of the baroque orchestral repertoire, proving that authenticity and timbral beauty aren’t mutually exclusive.

New recordings of works by Locke, Vivaldi, Marais, Telemann and Rameau - a splendidly varied and expressively wide-ranging selection - is a welcome addition to the existing landmark recordings made by Savall in this repertoire.

Pellucid engineering complements the live performances perfectly, offering warmth without excessive resonance, and letting the players shine.

Track listing:

Locke: Music from The Tempest

Marais, M: Suite No. 4 “Airs pour les Matelots & les Tritons”

Rameau: Air pour les Zephirs (from Les Indes Galantes)

Orage et air pour Boree (from Les Indes galantes)

Tonnerre (from Hippolyte Et Aricie)

Zoroastre: Contredanse

Zoroastre: Contredanse très vive

Rebel, J-F: Les Élémens

Telemann: Overture (Suite) TWV 55:C3 in C major for wind, strings & b.c. ‘Hamburger Ebb und Fluth’ (‘Wassermusik’)

Vivaldi: Flute Concerto, Op. 10 No. 1 in F major, RV 433 ‘La tempesta di mare’

 

Review

Christmas Day. It’s thirty-five degrees, I’m stuck on the freeway, and my air-conditioning has packed it in. A hot wind pummels the side of my car. I’m desperate to get home. I turn up the volume on my stereo system, playing Les Éléments – Jordi Savall’s most recent recording on his Alia Vox label. The music – so relaxingly beautiful – offers relief.

Through his selection of compositions, Savall aims to depict man’s tempestuous relationship with the forces of nature. Each work bears some significance to the theme, such as Vivaldi’s Tempesta di mare, which literally means ‘Storm at Sea’. He writes, ‘It is not too late to save the planet through cooperation, investment and our common resolve. And music, with its “tempests and its storms” reminds us, the earth will be what we make of it!’

Savall hasn’t strayed far from his usual fare: lesser-known baroque music, predominantly French composers, and a well-thought-out concept. And, as usual, this is a tight, well-produced offering, from the exquisitely clear sound of the orchestra, to the attractive packaging and informative liner notes. It’s for these reasons that Savall’s recordings are loved and celebrated, and Les Éléments is yet another triumph.

The album takes its title from Jean-Féry Rebel’s spectacular Les Éléments, for which the composer uses discord to depict chaos. Music from Marin Marais’ Alcione is another highlight. Here, instruments rumble to create the sound of the raging winds, swiftly contrasted by the elegant, courtly music for which Marais is famous. A Gavotte from Telemann’s Water Music (1740) had my toes tapping, as did the final stirring Contredanse trés vive from Rameau’s Les Boréades.

Sitting in traffic in intense heat seems a fitting place to listen to such a poignantly curated collection of baroque music, delivering this otherwise stressed driver safely home on Christmas Day.


Alexandra Mathew

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