Marketed as the “original motion picture soundtrack” to the 2000 French film Le Roi danse, this two-disc set is mostly a collection of orchestral excerpts from ballets, operas, and other stage works by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The movie concerns the relationship between Louis XIV, Molière, and Lully, and gives special attention to the Sun King’s exploits as a dancer in Lully’s ballets while also apparently taking every opportunity to demonstrate the composer’s considerable talent for royal spectacle and kingly glorification. And speaking of spectacle–the recorded sound gives the relatively large Musica Antiqua Köln forces a larger-than-life presence that’s capable of completely overwhelming your listening space–and just might blow you out of your chair if your volume controls are set at normal levels. Now this is quite impressive, and of course the playing is up to the high standard we expect from this orchestra and conductor. Lully probably has never been heard in more magnificent style, played with such fierce energy in such vibrant, vivid color.
However, purely as a listening experience, the program wears out its welcome fairly quickly because the overtures, dances, and ceremonial works are so similar in style and mannerism–in other words, big, loud, grand, ostentatious. After 15 or 20 minutes we long for something–anything–gentle and delicate to offset the pomposity. And yet, everyone seems to be having such a good time–and Lully exploits his orchestra like no one else of this period, so why not just sit back and revel in it? The couple of contributions by soprano Céline Scheen are not particularly memorable–the voice is pleasant enough, but the style is generic and the technique nothing special. Included is the “Symphonie” from Lully’s infamous Te Deum, the work he was conducting in January, 1687 when he stabbed his foot with the point of the cane he used to beat time–he died of blood poisoning a couple of months later. The Prologue from Lully’s opera Amadis makes a wondrously frightening, awesomely powerful conclusion to the program. The hybrid SACD is playable on your regular CD system, and if your equipment survives, you’ll likely be joining audiophiles in using this as a demonstration disc.
