Album Description
Music For Mazarin is the debut recording by le Jardin Secret winners of both the first prize and audience prize at the Early Music Network Young Artists Competition in 2007.
This talented ensemble of young musicians - comprising soprano, harpsichord, theorbo, viola da gamba and baroque cello - present a delightfully varied program featuring a mixture of French and Italian music that would have been heard at the court of the flamboyant Cardinal Mazarin.
The juxtaposition of French and Italian works on this disc clearly shows the rich selection of music heard at Mazarin's court in the late 1600s. The works demonstrate the stark contrast between French and Italian styles of the period with the added ingredient of political and cultural rivalry and intrigue - the Italian born Cardinal importing Italian culture to a resistant French court contributes a little "piquancy" to the mix!
On this disc, which includes songs by Charpentier, extracts of operas by Lully and Cavalli and the delightful, if at times brutal, 'Mazarinades', le Jardin Secret bring alive the emotive energy of the music, opening the door to the aesthetic world of this Baroque period in all its beguiling beauty.
Artists
le Jardin Secret:Elizabeth Dobbin soprano
David Blunden harpsichord
Sofie Vanden Eynde theorbo & Baroque guitar
Romina Lischka viola da gamba
Marian Minnen baroque cello & bass violin
Track Listing
Orazio Michi (1594-1641)
1. Spera mi disse Amore
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
2. Ah! Qu'ils sont courts
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) (arranged Sighting)
3. Assez de Pleurs
Pierre Guédron (1564-1619)
4. Aux plaisirs
Lully (arranged for Anglebert)
5. Ritournelle des Fées
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
6. Deh, memoria
Luigi Rossi (1597-1653) (arranged David Blunden)
7. Mio core languisce
Louis Couperin (c.1626 - 1661)
8. Chaconne la Bergeronnette
Lully
9. Deh, piangete - from Psyché
Anon (arranged David Blunden)
10. La chasse donné à Mazarin par les paysans des bourges et des villages sur le tocsin (Mazarinade)
Demachy (d. c.1692)
11.Allemande
Charpentier
12.Tristes déserts
Michelangelo Rossi (c.1601-1656)
13. Toccata Settima
Luigi Rossi
14. Non pianga e non sospiri - from Orfeo
Lully
15. Tranquilles coeurs - from Le Triomphe de L'Amour
Charpentier (arranged David Blunden)
16. Sans frayeur
Marc Antonio Pasqualini (1614-1691)
17. Si ch'io voglio sperare
Anon (arranged David Blunden)
18. Avertissement des enfarinez à Mazarin sur ce qu'il doit craindre (Mazarinade)
Lully
19. Le perfide Renaud me fuit - from Armide
Lully (arranged de Visée)
20. Chaconne des Harlequins
André Campra (1660-1774)
21. Ad un cuore - from L'Europe Galante
TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1hr 5mins