The term ‘brunette’ refers not only to a young woman with brown hair, but also to a musical form that was highly fashionable from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth. The genre evolved from the air de cour, extremely popular in France since the beginning of the seventeenth century. The compositional process, however, remained very similar: to write a short, tender song, dealing with themes of love or nature, which could be sung alone or accompanied by a harmonic instrument. The late seventeenth century also saw the appearance of an instrument that soon became a favourite of composers and amateur musicians: the German flute, now called the traverso or Baroque flute.

The most substantial pieces here are the set of variations of La folia, and the Tombeau pour M-deSte Colombe in memory of Marais's mentor. His idiom embodies a paradox that's peculiarly French, in that it demands a very high technical standard, yet its proper expression requires the utmost restraint. The young Finnish viol-player, Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, is a founder-member of Phantasm.

Behold Orpheus, the singing shepherd who braved the Underworld to bring back Eurydice. The only human to conquer death, this famous Thracian bard is the hero of the French cantatas that flourished between 1710 and 1730. They paint a picture of the faithful husband’s burning ardour and pleas, his hypnotic song that won over the King of Darkness, his furtive glance that would forever rob him of his beloved; these are miniature operas, their intense poignancy rendered by the chamber choir that magnificently envelops the singer. This fine team masterfully weaves a tapestry of emotions, the early gems of the Rocaille period, offering a sequel to the Coucher du Roi with which they gifted us two years ago. This truly is the spirit of Versailles.

The Troisième Livre de Pièces pour viole by Marin Marais, the object of the current recording, was printed in 1711 in many aspects is a break from the preceding first two. To start, and most probably echoing a demand from Marais’ clients, he adds some simpler pieces for less skilled players. It would seem that Marais anticipated criticism for urging works on mere mortals that would be too difficult for them to play. A clue may be found in the preface to this third book (1711): “The large number of short and easy pieces I have included is proof that I wanted to satisfy the present circumstances so often reiterated since the publication of my second book”. Having said this, they sit side by side with technically demanding pieces such as the Grand Ballet (track 27) from which the title of this album is taken.

The debut album of the young gambist André Lislevand is devoted to the great oeuvre for viol of Antoine Forqueray. Ambiguity: a word that can easily have a negative or derogatory meaning but which also accurately describes the various aspects of Forqueray’s music and the duality of style that distinguished music in the France of the Sun King: indubitably French, but also strongly influenced by the Italian idiom.

This disc presents a the music of a group of French musicians who throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries painted each other’s portraits, or their self-portraits, generally with considerable wit. We know that they were familiar with each other, and many of them are described in works bearing their names, or in tributes such as tombeaux. Thus Rameau, in his Pièces de clavecin en concerts, made fun of himself, and then offered his personal vision of Marin Marais and Forqueray.

Marin Marais published his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole two years after the death of Louis XIV, establishing himself as the undisputed master of the genre and providing pieces not only for musicians who had achieved some skill on the viol but also for the most virtuoso players. Here Marais reshaped the classical forms, altering the traditional sequence for the suites and making an increasing use of character pieces. The sometimes whimsical imagery and the new freedom of form that these pieces contain reach their peak in the astonishing Suitte d'un goût étranger; these thirty or so pieces employ as yet unheard-of keys and offer a multitude of characters and representations that can tend towards the exotic. Breaking further new ground, and somewhat influenced by the Italian trio, Marais ended the Quatrième Livre with two suites for three viols, a genre he claimed to be new to France.

Ever since its foundation in 1998, the ensemble Private Musicke has dedicated its repertoire to a wide range of music from the early Renaissance to late Baroque. Whether performing in viol consort formation, or in combination with other instruments and/or singers, you immediately recognize the typical Private Musicke sound. This is amply documented by CD recordings (Accent, ORF Alte Musik, Deutsche Grammophon) that have obtained numerous awards, e.g. Diapason d'or, 5 stars Goldberg, CD of the month (Fono Forum, BBC music).

This recording includes works for the oboe by four French Baroque composers, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, Francois Courpin, and Marin Marais. Among them Montéclair is a cantata "Pan et Syrinx" (Pan et Syrinx). The story of the faun Pan chasing the nymph Silinks is popular with composers. On the one hand, this is a sad story about love that can never be obtained, and the drama and imagination in it are quite suitable for composers to play; A flute, this "pan flute" can be played with a modern flute (as in Debussy's Syrinx), or with an oboe like Montéclair. The tone of the oboe is not as cold as the flute, but rather warm, elegant and fresh. On the one hand, it is very suitable for depicting the quiet life of nature or the countryside. The sweet memories of a lost love couldn't be more fitting.

La gamme is Marais’s instrumental chamber version of an opera, based on an ascending harmonic scale and employing a succession of tempi, ensemble textures and forms, linked together by skilfully wrought transitions.

José Miguel Moreno contrasts the uniqueness of the Angelica with the usual sound of the small theorbo.​ The differences in terms of resonance are indeed amazing, especially since the soloist does well with it to play out the musical lines on both instruments and to make broad gestures.

"La couleur est d'une exquise volupté , La qualité instrumentale est du plus haut niveau" Répertoire

Ces suites en trio ont été gravées par d'autres ensembles très talentueux : en intégralité pour l'ensemble "Pacifica" Marais : Pièces En Trio et le "Ricercar Consort" Marin Marais : Pièces en trio pour le coucher du roi ; ou partiellement comme pour les "aux pieds du roi" Marais : Pieces en trio pour les flutes, violon et dessus de viole (1692) . Chacun de ces enregistrements à de grands mérites. Toutefois l'ensemble Amalia à mon sens, mérite dans ce registre la première place pour plusieurs raisons.

…All these pursuits made of the 'Pièces en trio' an unpretentious but charming work. They very faithfully resuscitate the climate of the sosiety of the time, its passion for music and, at the same time, its lack of concern for it. But above all they carry the seed of a skill in writing and of the qualities of composition that Marais was not slow to employ so as to give us other testimonies much more elaborate and much more remarkable.

Slowik, ter Linden, and Junghänel bring a fresh quality of robustness to the music and cleave together, even breathing as one, in a remarkable display of ensemble playing. They show an enviable mastery of gesture and phrase in performances of breadth and cohesion.