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Les Folies Françoises



Jean-Marc Couderc
In 2000, some of the most promising French musicians decided to form Les Folies françoises. The ensemble revives the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. In the same way as François Couperin’s Treizième Ordre, of which the ensemble takes its name, Les Folies françoises aim to express the full palette of colours and feelings that characterised the musical sensibility at this time. Since their creation, Les Folies françoises have been developing their own and recognizable sound, based on best historically informed performance practices. 2008 was the beginning of a new adventure – immeasurable for the assertion of Les Folies’ artistic project in particular and the rediscovery of French musical heritage in general: the revival of “Les Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roy”. Les Folies françoises have become a key figure of the Baroque stage and have been invited by many concert venues. Recent productions abroad include: two chamber music American tours (Washington, Boston and NYC in 2010, Colombia in 2012); a Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roy Lully European Tour (Paris, Brussels, Valencia… in 2010); a collaboration with Namur Chamber Choir for a French grands motets program (Festival de Wallonie, 2010) and a program of baroque repertoire and contemporary creation Scaratti/Pécou in association with France Festivals and the Noirlac Abbey. The ensemble has recently recorded four CDs dedicated to J. S. Bach : the complete violin and basso continuo Sonatas (Choc du “Monde de la Musique”); “Concerto in Dialogo” (cantatas) with soprano Salomé Haller and bass baritone Stephan Mac Leod; the harpsichord concertos (BWV 1052, 1053, 1055 and 1056) with Béatrice Martin (Diapason d’Or, 2011). Their latest recording (Cypres), released in 2012 and dedicated to Campra’s petits motets, was recorded on the historic organ of Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache. Since 2008, Les Folies françoises are a resident ensemble of Orléans. By establishing a close collaboration with the Theatre and organizing its own concerts series, the ensemble daily works on music awareness actions, thanks to meetings, workshops or training courses. Les Folies françoises are supported by the French Ministry for Culture and Communication (DRAC Centre), the city of Orléans and the Région Centre, as well as the Fondation Orange and the Caisse d’Epargne Loire-Centre. The ensemble is a full member of the Fédération des Ensembles Vocaux et Instrumentaux Spécialisés (FEVIS).

www.foliesfrancoises.com


Discography on Cypres


Arcangelo Corelli: Il maestro famosissimo di violino (Ref.: CYP1668)
As a violinist admired throughout Europe and father of the sonata and the concerto grosso – two genres that he pushed to the highest degree of perfection –, Arcangelo Corelli enjoyed an unparalleled reputation during his lifetime and throughout the entire 18th century, leaving his mark on generations of musicians and composers. Although his music can seem less typically ‘baroque’ to our ears than that of his predecessors, with their penchant for surprises and expressive extravagance, its relative sobriety and the further refinement of violin making largely contributed to its dissemination.
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André Campra | Petits motets (Ref.: CYP1665)
In the France of Louis XIV, from the 1640s onward, the petit motet (small motet), like the larger-scale motet à grand chœur or grand motet, was one of the two forms of religious music most current in the context of liturgical practice. Campra’s petits motets are imbued with a deep spirituality, eloquently and movingly expressed in this recording, which bears witness to the great sensitivity of one of France’s most fascinating composers.
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Bach - harpsichord concertos bwv 1052, 1053, 1055, 1056 (Ref.: CYP1661)
The works on this recording are undoubtedly well-known, and it is a commonplace to say that they invented the very genre of keyboard concerto in western music. For Béatrice Martin the desire to record these concertos for harpsichord and strings stemmed from the conjuncture of two magnificently sounding instruments: a harpsichord by the Hamburg maker Christian Zell (1737) and one by the Barcelona maker Johan Marti, built in 2001 after the model of Zell. Listening to these harpsichords as played by Béatrice Martin with inspired intensity is to penetrate the intimacy of these works and at the same time to enter into Bach?s workshop at a time when the most learned of composers had set his heart on providing entertainment with infectiously agreeable music.
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Johann Sebastian Bach | Concerto in Dialogo (Ref.: CYP1652)
The liturgy is so constructed that in some of its most beautiful passages a dialogue emerges between the Spiritual and the human. Bach, in whom lay a fervent yet frustrated dramaturge, was able to give ? at times - an operatic dimension to his many cantatas. Those that concern us on this very fine disc blend the liturgical aspect with a more theatrical dimension.
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