French 17th-Century Trio Sonatas

"Baroque players provide us with a delightful survey of this early music. Thanks all round."
(Gramophone)

The Italian-style trio sonata, honed by Corelli into a monument of seventeenth century classicism with its perfect balance of new-found tonality and assimilation of dance forms into art music, had a hard time finding a foothold in France. Among other aspects, the unwillingness to abandon the dance suite - possibly caused by the privileged position of ballet as a royal pastime at the court of Louis XIV - meant that French composers waited until the end of the century to compose "proper" trio sonatas. But a great deal of experimentation with the form went on before that, and not surprisingly one of the experimenters was the Italian "immigrant" Lully. His rôle at the court of the Sun-king included providing small-scale works for the Coucher du Roi, the nightly ceremony marking the king's withdrawal to bed. Beginning with some of these "bed-chamber pieces", and comprising composers both unknown (Geoffroy, Clérambault) and well-known (Marais, Louis Couperin), this fascinating survey of the development of the trio sonata in 17th century France includes La Superbe by François Couperin - who in 1725 was to write L'apothéose de Lully (BIS-CD-1275), in which he proclaims the divine nature of his forerunner - and fittingly concludes with Jean-Ferry Rebel's Tombeau de Monsieur Lully, a synthesis of the 17th century lament with the new Italian trio sonata style. This disc is a sequel to BIS-CD-1455, on which London Baroque with incomparable expertise explored the same period in England, to the critics' acclaim - for example in The Strad: "These carefully considered performances radiate real empathy with the idiom, and the vitality and rhetoric with which violinists Ingrid Seifert and Richard Gwilt infuse their interpretations is emphatically illuminating. I await the next issue with eager anticipation."