The course of the evolution of the pandemic led to the reopening of concert halls on the eve of a concert of Happy Ideas which thus became the first concert of the recovery. It was a great return and an evening of great intellectual value.
Designed as a carte blanche for singer and harpsichordist Dorothéa Ventura, the program was devoted to the chaconne, a form that we know well throughout the 2nd Partita for Solo Violin of Bach and the Final of the 4th Symphony of Brahms, but which, before that, was in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, a very widespread form.
As a prelude to the programme, Geneviève Soly performed a Chaconne for Harpsichord in A by Graupner, a highly developed work which showed exactly where Brahms came from culturally. As the harpsichordist explained well and succinctly, the chaconne is based on an obstinate bass, a formula of 4 or 8 notes, on which variations are embroidered. As the formulas of notes are found from one work to another, we obtain compositions of an absolute kinship, which was well underlined by the menu concocted by Dorothéa Ventura.
Didactic
Particularly interesting in this didactic approach: the first section, where airs by Drouart de Bousset, Destouches and Lambert followed one another without the listener even realizing it, apart from the change of lyrics and singers, the passage of the to each other.
In the second section, it was about proving how the stubborn bass known as The Romanesca could be used to express banter (Charpentier) as well as drama (Desmarests).
At the same time, the concert was an opportunity to highlight the musicians of the ensemble: the excellent Sylvain Bergeron in Henry François de Gallot, but also Marie Nadeau-Tremblay on the violin, present for the first time with Les Idéeshappys and Vincent Lauzer, but also Karim Nasr in a somewhat tiresome bassoon transcription of The bush of Forqueray.
In her introduction Geneviève Soly presented Dorothéa Ventura as her assistant artistic director destined to take up more and more space between the present 35th season and the 40th season on the horizon of which Geneviève Soly wishes to assert her retirement rights. The founder also announced the reactivation of the “Graupner Project” with a full 19 Cantatas for Good Friday.
It remains to be gauged to what extent the deputy director will consider herself an essential solo singer of the ensemble’s artistic projects. Just like those of theorbist and tenor Kerry Bursey, her vocal appearances are very committed and vibrant but a little raw from the foundry (dryness of the tone in her, midrange and low midrange strange in him). Nothing to complain about, on the other hand against the performance of the soprano Anne-Marie Beaudette.
The concert, whose webcast we warmly recommend, ended in a very pleasant way with a recitative and an aria by Lully with a performance by dancer Anne-Marie Gardette.