Synopsis

 “…it can be said that no one has surpassed Marais, only one man has equalled him, and that is the famous Forqueray” ( from a 1744 chronicle by L.C.Daquine).

Looking at the three Centuries of viola da gamba repertoire, spanning from around 1550 to end of ‘700, Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray represent  without any doubt two immense giant figures of capital weight: they were the two “viol stars” of the magnificent context of the French Court at the time of Louis XIV and Louis XV, between the end of 17th Century and and the first decades of the 18th, when the French Kingdom was at its Zenith of its magnificence and power. At this time the court had moved to the Palace of Versailles, where some kind of aristocratic parallel world was running, daily fed by cultural and leisure activities like sports, dance and music. The extreme refinement of the Court needed an equally sophisticated and representative “music track”, supplied by musicians like Lully, Couperin, de Lalande, De Viseé, and of course Marais and Forqueray.

They have been described as to be playing, Marais as an angel, and Forqueray as a devil…

This simple and colorful image accompanies very often today’s concerts where their music is played, and of course is nothing but a rough simplification which cannot correspond to the complexity of their artistic and human personalities.

Very prolific composer, during his life Marais published more then 600 compositions for the viol distributed in five books of Piéces de Viole, while Forqueray never published a single note, and the five suites which arrived to us were published after his death, by his son Jean-Baptiste. This, as well as the content of their books, tells us about a very different attitude toward the world they where living in: Marais clearly showing the purpose of encouraging the constantly growing number of amateur viol players, most of them belonging to the aristocracy and very often of an excellent level, to enjoy playing his music, filling the scores with didactic indications, while Forqueray playing the role of  “enfant terrible”, often extravagant in his performances which were mostly improvised, was extremely jealous of his skills, didn’t want to teach, and was even capable of really devilish actions like managing, with false accuses, to send his own son (and unique viol student) to prison and exile, fearing he might – thanks to his amazing skills on the viol – replace the father as court viol player.

Marais is represented in this program with two of his masterpieces: the Couplets de Folies, variations on the popular “Folia” theme , and the Tombeau pour Mr. de Meliton for two viols.

The “Couplets de Folies”, exploring in all its extraordinary richness and contrasts the possibilities of the viol, where published only one year after those of Corelli for violin, almost as an official answer from the part the french established music world to the growing and inexorable expansion of Italian music throughout Europe.

The Tombeau pour Mr.de Meliton appeared in the first book of Marais in 1686, as an homage and musical epitaph to the death of a noble music lover and viol player, is an highpoint of musical meditation on the mystery of death. The two viols, in an intimate and complice interaction, picture sorrow, desperation, transition to the underworld, as well as the hope of an ascent to Heaven.

Forqueray is represented with two sets of his pieces: one from his C minor suite, and one chosen between his D major and D minor Suites. Some of the titles suggest to be musical portraits of contemporary artists or notable persons; so we have in the C minor set La Rameau, dedicated to the great opera composer, La Guignon, to a contemporary stunning violin virtuoso, La Lèon, a tender sarabande where our “devil” shows an unexpected extremely tender soul, ending with La Jupiter, describing the greatness of the Olympus God even in a moment of fury including thunders and lightnings…! The D major/minor set features La Régente, homage to the Duc D’Orléans who was regent to the throne while Louis XV was still a child, great music lover and mecenate, La Portugaise, where a triple time flows throughout the piece with an intense and sensual dance movement evoking exotic seductions, La Du Vaucel, where again the supposed “devilish soul” of our composers gets completely transfigured and shows to be capable of the sweetest of the lullabies, ending with La Ferrand, where the obstinate repetition of a melodic/rythmy pattern builds up an extraordinary powerful architecture that makes us imagine the strong impression which was left with the listeners after Forquerays performances at court.

The viola da gamba will continue its trajectory through Europe, which will end around the last years of XVIII Century in Germany and England, but Marais and Forqueray will be remembered as unequalled examples of instrumental and artistic excellence and still are the models of the “perfect viol players” for our contemporary early music lovers.  

P.P.