There still is a lot of good music to be written in the key of C, and there still is a lot of good Baroque music yet to be recorded and heard by today’s audiences. This excellent disc is proof, not necessarily of Schoenberg’s key of C major observation, but certainly of the fact that there’s still some very good 18th-century music to be “discovered” and taken seriously by today’s orchestras and record companies. Although French Baroque composer François Francoeur may not be in the same qualitative (or quantitative) league as Bach or Handel, if you like their music (and Baroque orchestral music in general) you will find much to enjoy and even admire on this well-recorded and expertly performed recording. Among other musical activities, Francoeur served as composer and violinist at Versailles in the 1770s and 1780s (he died in 1787, before the fall of the court and the beginning of the Revolution), and in this capacity wrote many works for festive and other state occasions. The “suite” performed on this program was cobbled from several different ceremonial pieces, but it’s a very good and totally satisfying compilation that gives an excellent idea of Francoeur’s melodic gifts (just listen to the beautiful third movement “Menuets”) and of his way with the rhythms and manner of dance music. The Rameau suite consists of extracts from his ballet Les Indes Galantes, a hugely successful work whose appeal is immediately apparent from the opening few minutes of its delightful overture.
The French period-instrument group Stradivaria compares favorably—particularly in its articulate phrasing, technical precision, and stylistic dominion—with my preferred Baroque orchestra, the Quebec-based Les Violons du Roy, directed by Bernard Labadie. Although the Stradivaria players lack just that last degree of ensemble perfection that the Les Violons musicians seem to have been born with, they nevertheless give a superbly timed, finely tuned, and endearingly stylish performance that encourages many hearings—and the desire for more. The sound is vibrant and clean, well-balanced and natural.
