French Cantatas by Rameau and Campra (2007)

The lighter music of the splendid French Baroque remains in need of greater exposure, making this disc of cantatas by the young Jean-Philippe Rameau and André Campra a welcome arrival. Here is some of the music the royals and aristocrats heard not in halls of opera and ballet but in more intimate surroundings, for amusement, with one or two singers and a small instrumental grouping. The language is, however, basically operatic, and annotator Charles Medlam points to Rameau's cantatas as places where he worked out some of ... Read More

The lighter music of the splendid French Baroque remains in need of greater exposure, making this disc of cantatas by the young Jean-Philippe Rameau and André Campra a welcome arrival. Here is some of the music the royals and aristocrats heard not in halls of opera and ballet but in more intimate surroundings, for amusement, with one or two singers and a small instrumental grouping. The language is, however, basically operatic, and annotator Charles Medlam points to Rameau's cantatas as places where he worked out some of his later operatic ideas. The charm of the Rameau piece lies more in the recitatives than in the airs, little tunes that have a nice way of growing out of both the action and musical construction illustrated by the recitatives. Consider the opening Les amants trahis (The Betrayed Lovers), with its pair of shepherds lamenting the inconstancy of their sweethearts. One is depressed, while the other urges him to laugh the whole thing off ("scorn the shepherdess and mock the rival!"). The... Read Less

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2007, BIS UPC: 675754990220 CD See All

2007, BIS UPC: 7318590014950 CD See All