Twelfth Night at Baroque Versailles
★★★★
Performers: Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations
Place and date: Peralada Festival. Carmel Church (July 31, 2023)
What would have become of the music promoted by the Lluïsos in Versailles in our time without the great work of Jordi Savall in terms of recovery and interpretation, especially?
Marin Marais and Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe might not have revived so strongly. Today they occupy the musical horizons of music lovers, particularly those devoted to what is called early music, and Savall's excellent interpretations with his famous Barak Norman seven-string viola fill the corners, in which the melancholy (who said those 18th century courtiers weren't also romantic?) and dancing vitality.
This concert was a vital return to the origins of Savall and others who have accompanied him for years, such as the violinist Kramer, the gambiist Pierlot, the flutist Zebley or Pedro Estevan and his subtle percussions... Marc Vitale on the harpsichord and Enrique Solinis on the guitar and tiorba with subtle glosses completed the group in a global work branded Savall.
The maestro is also usually communicative, with comments of great interest, but which barely reached the front rows, in a full church that closed the concert with fervent applause.
Moments of great interest and high level of interpretation in technique and expression: Le rétour a dues violas de Sainte Colombe (Savall and the excellent Philippe Pierlot), or the Couplets de Folies d'Espagne by Marin Marais and a fantastic Couperin , which gave way to the stage of Louis XV.
In Couperin and Rameau he looked at Debussy well accompanied by Ricard Viñes and the ideas of Pedrell, who in turn urged his own to recover Scarlatti, the genesis of great changes with old Russian fashions of the early years of the 20th century. Time when Russians spoke French.
The stage of Louis XV was set to music here with pieces by Jean-Féry Rebel and Jean-Marie Leclair that completed a monographic program in the hands of these magnificent performers. Savall and Pierlot's masterful violas da gamba made me think if we have equivalents here - as there are already in other instruments or countries - in the new generation. I don't know if it has been taught, and intergenerational transmission is very important.
