La Douceur
Bloomsbury Baroque
La Douceur: the name of our programme is taken from the words of a hopeful lover in the song j'avois cru que'en vous aymant. It was published as an 'air tendre' early in the eighteenth century, and is just one example from the numerous collections of songs and dances taken from traditional or ancient sources and published from the late seventeenth century onwards in France.
This hour long programme of vocal and instrumental music from the height of the French Baroque is a microcosm of the highly expressive musical world of eighteenth Century France, moving between the domestic songs and pedagogical pieces by Lambert to the drama of Montéclair's cantata La Mort de Didon and the virtuosic display of Marin Marais. Montéclair, Marais and Morel were known primarily for their contribution to the repertoire of the viol, and the bass writing displayed in this programme is both expressive and demanding. The programme also features some of Rameau's highly characterised and innovative writing evident in his Pièces de Clavecin en Concert. and our concert ends in the traditional French manner with a chaconne written for flute, viol and continuo.
Lambert
Ma Bergère est tendre et fidèle
Marais
La Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève
Montéclair
J’avois cru qu’en vous aymant
Montéclair
La Mort de Didon
Rameau
selection from troisième suite de clavecin en concert
Lambert
Ombre de mon amant
Charpentier
Sans frayeur dans ce bois
Morel
Chaconne
Bloomsbury Baroque
Philippa Hyde Soprano
Diane Moore baroque violin
William Summers baroque flute
Yat-Soon Yeo harpsichord
Ibrahim Aziz bass viol