Cantatas Booklet

French Baroque Cantatas
MONTÉCLAIR • STUCK
MASTERPIECES OF THE FRENCH BAROQUE
THE PERFECTION OF MUSIC
476 5941
TARYN FIEBIG • FIONA CAMPBELL
ENSEMBLE BATTISTIN
Stewart Smith, Suzanne Wijsman, Fiona Campbell and Robin Adamson recording at New Norcia
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MICHEL PIGNOLET DE MONTÉCLAIR 1667-1737
La mort de Didon (The Death of Dido)
Lent, marqué et détaché: Je ne verrai donc plus Énée
So I shall not see Aeneas again
Air lent: O Toi, Déesse de Cithère, tendre Vénus
O Thou, goddess of Cytherea, tender Venus
Récitatif: Infidèle, pourquoi quittez-vous ce rivage ?
Faithless one, why are you leaving these shores?
Vivement: Tyrans de l’empire de l’onde
Tyrants of the empire of the waves
Récitatif: Non ! Arrêtez !
No! Stop!
Air gai: Qu’il est dangereux de se rendre aux vœux
How dangerous it is to believe promises
[13’04]
2’49
4’18
0’43
1’53
1’47
1’34
Fiona Campbell mezzo-soprano
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9
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JEAN-BAPTISTE STUCK 1680-1755
L’amant réconcilié (The Reconciled Lover)
[12’09]
Récitatif: Enfin de ma Phillis j’ai calmé le courroux
0’35
At last I have calmed the anger of my Phyllis
Air gaiement: L’objet de mes vœux me rend sa tendresse
2’53
The object of my desires returns my tenderness
Récitatif – Lentement: Que les soupçons jaloux qui troublaient nos amours 0’52
Let the jealous suspicions which troubled our love
Mouvement juste – Lentement: La discorde en tous lieux
1’23
Discord everywhere
Récitatif: Faisons retentir les airs des plus aimables concerts
0’24
Let us make the tunes of the most delightful concerts sound
Ritournelle gai – Air: Vénus lui donna ses attraits
2’19
Venus gave her her charms
Air gai: Chantons, chantons les doux transports
3’43
Let us sing, let us sing the sweet transports
Taryn Fiebig soprano
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MICHEL PIGNOLET DE MONTÉCLAIR
Ariane et Bachus (Ariadne and Bacchus)
Récitatif: Ariane adorait le volage Thésée
Ariadne adored the fickle Theseus
Air lent: Plus cruel que le Minotaure
More cruel than the Minotaur
Vivement: Ah ! dans mon désespoir…Mais quel Dieu fait
frémir les ondes ?
Ah! in my despair…But what God disturbs the waves?
Air tendrement: Régnez adorable mortelle
Reign, adorable mortal
Récitatif: L’Amour de la plus douce chaîne
Love, with the sweetest chain
Air gai: Si vos amants brisent leurs chaînes
If your lovers break their chains
3’37
1’43
3’35
0’59
3’41
Fiona Campbell mezzo-soprano
)
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JEAN-BAPTISTE STUCK
Céphale et Aurore (Cephalus and Aurora)
[17’14]
Gravement et détaché: La nuit d’un voile obscur couvrait encore les airs
2’32
Night still covered the air with a dark veil
Lentement: Vous qui parcourez cette plaine
5’34
You who travel over this plain
Récitatif: Mais que dis-je ?
0’45
But what am I saying?
Air gai: Il en est temps encore, Céphale, ouvre les yeux
2’45
There is still time, Cephalus, open your eyes
Récitatif: Elle dit, et le Dieu qui répand la lumière de son char argenté
1’15
Thus she said. And the God who pours out the light from his silvered chariot
Doucement: Ainsi l’Amour punit un calme trop coupable
1’21
Thus Love punishes a too culpable calm
Gai: N’attendez jamais le jour
3’02
Never await the day
Taryn Fiebig soprano
Total Playing Time
Ensemble Battistin
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(and Germany), artistic life in France revolved
around a centralised, bureaucratic institution: the
royal court. This was where gifted musicians
sought employment, creating and performing in
a style that appealed to royal taste. When the
young Louis XIV (the so-called ‘Sun King’)
ascended the throne in 1661 to rule in his own
right, he was determined that French culture
would not only match that of Italy, but outdo it,
and in a way that set it apart from its great rival.
As a result, most 17th-century French music
reflects a courtly grace, its phrases so often
moving in the rhythms and gestures of that most
popular of diversions – dancing. While the French
dance forms were extensively borrowed by
musicians in other countries, the hallmark of
Italian Baroque music lay in its driving rhythms,
its colourful harmonies, vocal and instrumental
virtuosity. Thus it was that musical Europe
regarded Italian and French styles as quite
distinctive. Yet these polarities were to come
together towards the end of the 17th century,
ushering in a new and very fertile period of
French music. Not least amongst the early fruits
were its first cantatas and sonatas.
Introduction
[14’38]
1’03
57’25
The bringing together of French and Italian styles
must create the perfection of music. (François
Couperin, 1725)
Couperin’s ideal of fusing the Italian and French
styles of music, which during the 17th century
had provided the twin foundations of much
European music, found a ready response from
French composers at the beginning of the next
century. At the very heart of this movement
sprang a repertoire of vocal and instrumental
chamber music of extraordinary beauty,
freshness and – at times – remarkable dramatic
power. The Perfection of Music – Masterpieces
from the French Baroque is a series of five
compact discs, each exploring chamber music in
France from around 1690 to 1750. Four cantatas
by two of the great masters of the genre –
Montéclair and Battistin (Jean-Baptiste Stuck) –
open the series. A double compact disc set
explores music at the Concert Spirituel and the
Concert Français; a program of music associated
with Philippe II, the Duke of Orléans and Regent
of France, and a disc of little-known gems from
the vast repertoire of French instrumental
chamber music complete the series.
This bringing together of French and Italian styles
came about in an unexpected way. In the decade
of the 1680s the great arbiter of French taste –
Louis XIV – suffered a series of misfortunes from
military defeats, virtual bankruptcy of the state,
political miscalculations and last, but not least, a
string of family bereavements. The lights began
So-called ‘Baroque’ music (with its distinctive
style, forms and expression) first developed in
the early 17th century in Italy, quickly spreading
into Germany and Spain. And France? Here, it
met resistance. This was because, unlike in Italy
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to dim in what had been the most glittering
court in Europe. After the Queen died in 1683,
Louis married Mme de Maintenon, a woman
noted for her piety who drew her husband away
from the pleasures of the court and it was not
long before the lively minds who had gathered
at the palace of Versailles turned to Paris for
amusement and stimulation. Unlike Versailles,
where French music held pride of place, Paris,
though only 17 miles from it, was discovering
the delights of Italian music. Couperin was to
head a movement that sought to combine both
styles, and in his words to gain ‘perfection
in music’.
The French Cantata
Before the advent of the cantata, dramatic
music in France had found its outlet only in
opera – or tragédie-lyrique as it was called.
Unlike Italian opera, the French version (created
by Lully) made much of dancing and of chorus.
Eighteenth-century French cantatas, dramatic as
they were, were composed, however, not for
the stage, but for the musical salon. Thus, there
were no dancers or choruses and they generally
called for one voice only, accompanied by a
small ensemble. This meant that in order to
attract enthusiasm for the new, smaller form
composers had to be very imaginative, for they
could not rely on gesture, scenery, dancing or
chorus to help convey the mini-drama contained
in each cantata. This was now up to the text, the
music and the dramatic skill of singers and
players alone.
Louis XIV was to remain on the throne until
1715, after which, until the young Louis XV was
old enough to take his great-grandfather’s place,
the country was ruled by a Regent, the Duke of
Orléans, who was to live in his own palace in
Paris (the Palais Royal) and not at Versailles. Yet
during the declining years of the Sun King’s rule
Paris was already beginning to take on
something of the spirit of those pleasure-loving
days of the coming Regency, its fêtes galantes
immortally captured on canvas by Antoine
Watteau. Like many a Parisian he was enchanted
by the commedia dell’arte and the possibility of
blending French and Italian styles in popular
theatre. It’s scarcely to be wondered at that
French cantatas and sonatas, inspired by Italian
models, suddenly burst into the musical scene
in Paris and captivated its audiences.
The form of the cantata, borrowed from Italy,
was one of alternating recitatives and airs, the
story-line usually based on Greek mythology. Yet
no matter how tragic the incident, in the hands
of cantata librettists the story becomes a mere
cautionary tale for 18th-century lovers – after all,
its audience was urbane and sophisticated and,
being Parisian, not likely to take matters overseriously! Thus, in Montéclair’s Ariane et
Bachus, Ariadne abandoned by Theseus is
befriended by handsome Bacchus, so, as the
last air suggests, when love’s chains are broken
you can do well to drown your sorrows in
Bacchus’s love and wine! The cantata, in fact,
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theories of performance style and vocal
technique were put into practice. For example,
the two singers performing on this disc, Fiona
Campbell and Taryn Fiebig – both well-known
Australian opera and oratorio singers –
experimented with changing aspects of vocal
production, tone and ornamentation.
spawned a quite large body of cantata poetry
regarded as a genre in its own right, and at the
time it helped the new form achieve
extraordinary popularity. The value of the music,
however, can be in no doubt. To judge from the
works on the discs in this series, Couperin’s
prediction that the union of French and Italian
styles would bring musical perfection may not
have been too far off the mark.
Most French cantatas were composed for solo
voice (most usually a ‘high’ voice) accompanied
by continuo alone or by a larger ensemble. The
solo singer was at the same time the narrator
and character(s) of the story; the typical operatic
situation with a group of singers each taking a
dramatic role is rarely found in the French
cantata repertoire. The composers were very
practical over the choice of voices and
instruments. On the various scores we read that
voices were interchangeable, no matter the
characterisation, and that the music may be
transposed to suit them. Flutes and violins often
swapped places, and instruments could be
doubled or played solo. It was not a matter of
indifference; rather, it was recognition that
performances so often depended upon what
forces were available. This was not only in
cantata repertoire. Couperin gives a remarkable
array of instrumental possibilities in many of his
works. All he demanded was close attention to
appropriate ornamentation, tempos and
articulation, features that have informed our own
performances in this series.
The French cantata in performance
Modern performances of 18th-century French
cantatas have greatly benefited from what is
known generally about Baroque practices. It can
be taken for granted that after decades of
scholarly studies of performance manuals which
form the basis of today’s historically informed
versions, we can now expect, for example, to
hear stylish ornamentation from singers and
instrumentalists alike, and that the latter, playing
on original instruments – or, more likely, replicas
of them – can give us a good idea of the
instrumental sonorities of those days. But what
of the singers? No matter the century, the vocal
apparatus has remained the same, and hence
the ‘instrument’ itself gives no clue as to the
vocal sonorities of earlier times. For this we
need to depend upon circumstantial evidence
and what singing treatises tell us about vocal
production – admittedly, very little. As part of the
research behind these cantata performances, a
vocal workshop was set up during this project to
follow these hints whereby 18th-century
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La mort de Didon (c. 1709)
by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair
The composers and their works
An Italian composer of German descent, JeanBaptiste Stuck arrived in Paris in 1705 where he
was also known as Battistin. He was a virtuoso
cellist whom the Duke of Orléans appointed to
his musical staff at the Palais Royal. Here Stuck
found himself in the company of very gifted
musicians, one of whom – Jean-Baptiste Morin
– had composed the first cantate française,
initiating what became the most widely
cultivated and popular form in early 18th-century
France. Morin had spoken of ‘retaining the
sweetness of our French style of melody, but
with greater variety in the accompaniment and
employing tempos and key-changes
characteristic of the Italian cantata.’ Stuck and
others at the Palais Royal followed his example –
encouraged by the Duke, himself a composer
and a champion of Italian music. The two
cantatas by Stuck recorded on this disc come
from the first of his four books (1706-1714).
for voice, violin, flute and basso continuo
The story: Dido, Queen of Carthage, gives way
to grief and rage when she discovers that
Aeneas has abandoned her. After calling upon
the Gods to avenge her and drown Aeneas as
he flees across the ocean, she plunges a knife
into her heart. The moral is very simple: it is
dangerous to pledge one’s heart to a fickle lover.
Except for the beguiling air at the end, the
cantata is intense and dramatic throughout. Only
once does Dido’s rage give way to a melancholic
reproach to Venus, mother of faithless Aeneas.
In this, the second air of the cantata, voice and
flute entwine in an exquisite duet, the lines
delicately embellished with ornaments notated
by the composer himself, instead of leaving it to
the performers to improvise.
L’amant réconcilié (1706)
by Jean-Baptiste Stuck
Michel Pignolet de Montéclair had sojourned in
Italy, returning at the turn of the century to Paris
where he was appointed to the Opéra as a
double bass player. He was a very fine composer
and his 20 French cantatas (he also wrote Italian
ones) are amongst the most remarkable in the
repertoire in their range of expression and
explicit instructions for performance.
for voice, two violins and basso continuo
The story: Two lovers rejoice that their quarrels
are ended.
This work was also entitled L’heureux amant
(The Happy Lover) in at least one reprint. Stuck’s
cantatas were performed often at the Concert
français and remained very popular in the
composer’s lifetime. Despite the fact that he
was foreign-born, Stuck’s selection and settings
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expression of grief and anger in the cantata is
relieved by movements of charming lyricism.
of French poetry were excellent, and his
masterly ability to fuse elements of French and
Italian styles in his many cantatas suggest that
his works still warrant today the high esteem in
which they were held by his 18th-century
patrons and audiences.
Instrumental forces are deployed by Montéclair
with dramatic effect: an arpeggiated interjection
by the obbligato bass viol paints ‘disturbed’
waves caused by the gods, followed by an
interlude with the ‘sweetest music’, in which the
vocal line is accompanied only by a flute and
doubled by the violin part, with the basso
continuo omitted entirely.
Not surprisingly, this cantata is lyrical and mostly
untroubled – just a flash of drama when it is
recalled how discord can arouse war even
amongst the Gods. One of the highlights of the
work is the final air: the only time in the French
cantata repertoire when a fugue is the basis of
the movement – in this case, a four-part romp!
Céphale et Aurore (1706)
by Jean-Baptiste Stuck
for voice, two violins, flute, viola
and basso continuo
Ariane et Bachus (1728)
by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair
The story: Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn,
discovers the youthful hunter Cephalus asleep.
Yet, by waking him she can admire him no
longer, for she must leave as the day advances.
Lovers who sleep during the night are
reproached in the final air.
for voice, violin, flute, viola da gamba
and basso continuo
The story: Ariadne, abandoned on the island of
Naxos by Theseus (who with her help had slain
the Minotaur and escaped the labyrinth), pours
out her grief at Theseus’s betrayal. The handsome
God of the Vine, Bacchus, hears her and is so
moved by both her sorrow and her beauty that
he falls in love and gives her a crown adorned
with seven golden stars. After her death
Bacchus’s gift becomes the constellation known
as Ariadne’s Crown. The moral of the cantata,
expressed in the final air, is that betrayed lovers
would do well to turn to Bacchus.
The opening scene is wonderfully – yet simply –
painted by music in which the Goddess of the
Dawn, Aurora, slowly approaches the sleeping
mortal, Cephalus. The contrast in mood between
the repeated notes in the instrumental
accompaniment, symbolising sleep, and the
lively and brilliant second air as Aurora urges the
sleeper to open his eyes (clearly indebted to the
Italian sonata style in the violin parts) typifies the
way Stuck masterfully brings to life the dramatic
Even though the legend is a tragic one, the
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action in the text by musical means. A
cheerful gigue brings this fine cantata to a
close, with a message about the fleeting
nature of love.
David Tunley
David Tunley is internationally renowned as a
musicologist, particularly in the field of French
music in the 18th and 19th centuries. His book
The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata (1974,
revised 1997) – which has become the classic
study of the genre – along with his subsequent
17-volume facsimile edition of French cantatas
(1990) provided the impetus for this recording
project. His most recent book is François
Couperin and ‘The Perfection of Music’ (2004).
His research into French music began in 1964
while studying as a composer in Paris with
Nadia Boulanger. He is a Chevalier in the
Napoleonic Order of Palmes Académiques, a
Member of the Order of Australia, and an
Emeritus Professor of Music at the University
of Western Australia.
Right: Ceiling and altarpiece,
Chapel of St Ildephonsus, New Norcia
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La mort de Didon
The Death of Dido
Récitatif
5 « Non ! Arrêtez !
Lent, marqué et détaché
1 « Je ne verrai donc plus Énée, »
S’écria tristement Didon abandonnée.
« Il est donc vrai qu’il part ?
Il fuit loin de ces bords.
Dieux, que j’étais crédule !
Ô Dieux, qu’il est perfide !
L’inconstant plus léger que le vent qui le guide,
Me quitte sans regrets, me trahit sans remords.
‘So I shall not see Aeneas again,’
the abandoned Dido cried sadly.
‘So it is true that he is leaving?
He is fleeing far from these shores.
Gods, how credulous I was!
O Gods, how perfidious he is!
The faithless one, lighter than the wind that draws him,
leaves me without regrets, betrays me without remorse.
Air lent
2 « O Toi, Déesse de Cithère, tendre Vénus,
‘O Thou, Goddess of Cytherea, tender Venus, are you
the mother of the ungrateful one who was able to charm me?
No, no. No, no he cannot love.
Alas, how is it that he can please too much?
Es-tu la mère de l’ingrat qui m’a su charmer ?
Non, non. Non, non il ne sait pas aimer.
Hélas pourquoi sait-il trop plaire ?
Récitatif
3 « Infidèle, pourquoi quittez-vous ce rivage ?
Les plaisirs et les jeux y volaient sur vos pas.
Pourquoi vouloir régner dans de lointains climats
Quand ma main vous offrait le sceptre de Carthage ?
‘Faithless one, why are you leaving these shores?
Pleasures and games floated around your steps.
Why wish to reign in distant climes
when my hand offered you the sceptre of Carthage?
Perfidious lover, disastrous day!
Must I find an inconstant heart
in the brother of tender love?
Perfide amant, funeste jour !
Faut-il que je trouve un volage
Dans le frère du tendre amour ?
Vivement
4 « Tyrans de l’empire de l’onde
‘Tyrants of the empire of the wave,
groan. Blow, furious winds.
Raise the waves to the skies.
Let the whole universe converge,
thunder, avenge my betrayed feelings.
Just Gods, avenge my insult.
Thunder, set fire to a faithless one
in the very breast of Thetis.
Grondez. Volez vents furieux.
Élevez les flots jusqu’aux cieux.
Que tout l’univers se confonde,
Tonnez, vengez mes feux trahis.
Justes Dieux, vengez mon injure.
Tonnez, embrasez un parjure
Dans le sein même de Thétis.
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Grands Dieux, gardez-vous d’exaucer
Mon courroux légitime.
Laissez-moi choisir ma victime.
Énée est dans mon cœur et je vais l’y percer. »
‘No! Stop!
Great Gods, do not grant the prayer
of my legitimate anger.
Let me choose my victim.
Aeneas is in my heart and it is there that I shall wound him.’
Sur un bûcher fatal, théâtre de sa rage,
Didon en ce moment se livre à la fureur.
Un fer, triste présent que lui laisse un volage,
Un fer cruel lui perce enfin le cœur.
Mourante elle tombe et son âme
Chérit encore l’ingrat qu’elle n’a pu toucher.
Elle expire sur le bûcher.
Le flambeau de l’amour en allume la flamme.
On a deadly pyre, the scene of her rage,
Dido at that moment gave herself over to her fury.
A dagger, sad gift left to her by the fickle one,
a cruel dagger at last pierces her heart.
Dying, she falls and her soul
still cherishes the ungrateful one whom she could not harm.
She dies on the pyre.
The torch of love lights its flame.
Air gai
6 Qu’il est dangereux
How dangerous it is
to believe the promises
of a fickle lover.
a feeling heart
risks its happiness
from the day it commits itself.
Let pleasure alone
decide our desires.
Let us avoid the suffering.
Love, unless games
are the basis of the attachment
I break my chains.
De se rendre aux vœux
D’un objet volage.
Un sensible cœur
Risque son bonheur
Le jour qu’il s’engage.
Que les seuls plaisirs
Fixent nos désirs.
Évitons les peines.
Amour, si les jeux
N’en forment les nœuds
Je brise mes chaînes.
Anonymous
The Lover Reconciled
L’amant réconcilié
Récitatif
7 Enfin de ma Phillis j’ai calmé le courroux,
Et l’amour a voulu rétablir entre nous
Les douceurs d’une paix charmante
Avec tous les transports d’une ardeur renaissante.
At last I have calmed the anger of my Phyllis,
and love has consented to re-establish between us
the sweetness of a charming peace
with all the transports of a re-awakening ardour.
13
Air gaiement
8 L’objet de mes vœux me rend sa tendresse.
The object of my desires returns my tenderness.
My loving heart is no longer sad.
The emotion that is ending doubles my passion
and love hastens to make me happy.
Mon cœur amoureux n’a plus de tristesse.
Le trouble qui cesse redouble mes feux
Et l’amour s’empresse de me rendre heureux.
Célébrons la beauté qui règne dans mon âme.
Let us celebrate the beauty who reigns in my soul.
Écho de ces bois
Réponds à ma voix.
Echo of these woods,
respond to my voice.
Anonymous
Ariadne and Bacchus
Ariane et Bachus
Récitatif
9 Que les soupçons jaloux qui troublaient nos amours
Emportés par les vents se perdent pour toujours.
Let the jealous suspicions which troubled our love
carried away by the winds be lost forever.
Lentement
Pourvu que ma Phillis soit sensible à ma flamme
La paix et les plaisirs règneront dans mon âme.
Provided my Phyllis responds to my ardour,
peace and pleasure will reign in my heart.
Mouvement juste
0 La discorde en tous lieux
Discord everywhere
can bring thunder.
Let it arouse war,
even among the Gods.
Peut porter le tonnerre.
Qu’elle allume la guerre,
Même parmi les Dieux.
Récitatif
$ Ariane adorait le volage Thésée.
Ariadne adored the fickle Theseus.
For a long time he responded to her assiduous attentions,
but of this love so sweet his pleasure tired.
He abandons her, alone, in unknown places.
In her bitter disappointment, this deceived lover
expresses in these words her useless regrets,
invoking, but in vain, the past tenderness
of a lover who flies from her and no longer listens to her.
Il répondait longtemps à ses soins assidus,
Mais d’un amour si doux sa confiance est lassée.
Il l’abandonne, seule, en des lieux inconnus.
Dans son cruel dépit, cette amante abusée
Exprime par ces mots ses regrets superflus,
Implorant, mais en vain, la tendresse passée
D’un amant qui la fuit et ne l’écoute plus.
Air lent
% « Plus cruel que le Minotaure,
Lentement
Pourvu que ma Phillis soit sensible à ma flamme
La paix et les plaisirs règneront dans mon âme.
Provided my Phyllis responds to my ardour
peace and pleasure will reign in my heart.
Récitatif
! Faisons retentir les airs
Let us make the tunes
of the most delightful concerts sound.
Let the son of Latone and brilliant Flora
crown completely the beauty I adore.
Des plus aimables concerts.
Que le fils de Latone et la brillante Flore
Couronnent à l’envi la beauté que j’adore.
Ritournelle gai – Air
@ Vénus lui donna ses attraits,
Venus gave her her charms,
and Love lends her his likeness.
As brilliant as the dawn,
she has all the charms of Flora.
Et l’amour lui prête ses traits.
Aussi brillante que l’aurore,
Elle a tous les charmes de Flore.
Air gai
£ Chantons, chantons les doux transports de l’amour
Let us sing, let us sing the sweet transports of the love
which enflames me.
qui m’enflamme.
14
‘More cruel than the Minotaur,
you mock, faithless one, my sufferings.
You betray me and I adore you.
You abandon me and I die.
I no longer demand that you love me,
hatred is too strong in your heart.
Ah! as the price of my extreme passion
come, take pity on my unhappiness.
Tu ris, ingrat, de mes douleurs.
Tu me trahis et je t’adore.
Tu m’abandonnes et je meurs.
Je n’exige plus que tu m’aimes,
La haine est trop fort en ton cœur.
Ah ! pour prix de mes feux extrêmes
Viens, prends pitié de mon malheur.
Vivement
^ « Ah ! dans mon désespoir le seul bien qui me reste
‘Ah! in my despair the only good thing left to me
is you, O Death. I fly to meet your blows.
Come and deliver me from this day I detest.
Unhappy humans fear only you,
but love has made my fate so dark
that this greatest of evils will seem to me very sweet.’
C’est vous, ô Mort. Je vole au-devant de vos coups.
Venez me délivrer du jour que je déteste.
Les malheureux humains ne redoutent que vous,
Mais l’amour a rendu mon destin si funeste
Que le plus grand des maux me semblera trop doux. »
15
Mais quel Dieu fait frémir les ondes ?
Quel éclat embellit les mers
Jusque dans leurs grottes profondes ?
Les Tritons sont charmés par les plus doux concerts.
But what God disturbs the waves?
What brilliance enriches the seas
right down to their deep grottos?
The Tritons are charmed by the sweetest music.
Sur ces bords écartés, Bachus descend lui-même.
Les Ris et les Amours volent devant ses pas.
Ariane quel est votre bonheur extrême ?
Pour vous seule les Dieux visitent ces climats.
Onto these distant shores, Bacchus himself descends.
The Gods of laughter and of love fly before his feet.
Ariadne, how fortunate you are.
for you alone the Gods visit these regions.
Air tendrement
& Régnez adorable mortelle.
Reign, adorable mortal.
You win over the most seductive of the Gods.
Be grateful to the unfaithful one
who has given you such a glorious fate.
When a Mortal abandons you
you enslave the heart of the Immortals.
Although you lose your crown
the whole universe makes altars to worship you.
Vous triomphez du plus charmant des Dieux.
Rendez grâces à l’infidèle
Qui vous assure un sort si glorieux.
Lorsqu’un Mortel vous abandonne
Vous enchaînez le cœur des Immortels.
Si vous perdez une couronne
Tout l’univers vous dresse des autels.
Récitatif
* L’Amour de la plus douce chaîne
Unit ces illustres amants.
Bachus changea la plus affreuse peine
En des plaisirs durables et charmants.
Ariane jouit d’une gloire immortelle.
Sa couronne à l’instant s’élève jusqu’aux Cieux.
Elle y brille à jamais d’une clarté nouvelle,
Monument éternel d’un sort si glorieux.
Love, with the sweetest chain
Joined these famous lovers.
Bacchus changed the most frightful anguish
into lasting and charming pleasures.
Ariadne rejoices in immortal glory.
Her crown at that very moment rises to the heavens.
There she shines forever with a new brilliance,
an eternal monument to such a glorious fate.
Air gai
( Si vos amants brisent leurs chaînes
Beautés, n’implorez que Bachus.
Courez, courez, noyez vos peines
Dans les flots charmants de son jus.
L’Amour, toujours rempli d’alarmes,
Tourmente les plus tendres cœurs.
If your lovers break their chains,
beauties, pray only to Bacchus.
Run, run, drown your sorrows
in the seductive flow of his libations.
Love, always full of fears,
torments the tenderest hearts.
16
Bacchus gives it a thousand charms
or consoles you for its trials.
Bachus lui prête mille charmes
Ou console de ses rigueurs.
Anonymous
Cephalus and Aurora
Céphale et Aurore
Gravement et détaché
) La nuit d’un voile obscur couvrait encore les airs
Et la seule Diane éclairait l’univers,
Quand de la rive orientale
L’Aurore, dont l’amour avance le réveil,
Vint trouver le jeune Céphale
Qui reposait encore dans le sein du sommeil.
Elle approche, elle hésite, elle craint, elle admire.
La surprise enchaîne ses sens
Et l’amour du héros pour qui son cœur soupire
À sa timide voix arrache ces accents :
Night still covered the air with a dark veil
and only Diana lit the universe,
when from the eastern bank
Dawn, her awakening hastened by love,
came to find the young Cephalus
who was still resting in the bosom of sleep.
She approaches, she hesitates, she fears, she admires.
Surprise captures her senses
and love for the hero for whom her heart sighs
calls forth from her timid voice these words:
Lentement
¡ « Vous qui parcourez cette plaine,
‘You who travel over this plain,
streams, flow more slowly,
birds, sing more sweetly.
Breezes, withhold your breath.
Respect a young hunter
tired from a violent hunt,
and of the sweet repose which enchants him
allow him to taste the sweetness.
Ruisseaux, coulez plus lentement,
Oiseaux, chantez plus doucement.
Zéphyrs, retenez votre haleine.
Respectez un jeune chasseur
Las d’une course violente,
Et du doux repos qui l’enchante
Laissez-lui goûter la douceur.
Récitatif
™ « Mais que dis-je ? Où m’emporte une aveugle
‘But what am I saying? Where is my blind tenderness
taking me?
Cowardly lover, is this how your ardour urges you
to look on the object of your love?
Have I come to this place to serve as your trophy?
Is it in the arms of Morpheus
that one should await the return of a lover?
tendresse ?
Lâche amant, est-ce ainsi que ton ardeur te presse
De voir l’objet de ton amour ?
Viens-je donc en ces lieux te servir de trophée ?
Est-ce dans les bras de Morphée
Que l’on doit d’une amante attendre le retour ?
17
Air gai
# « Il en est temps encore, Céphale, ouvre les yeux.
‘There is still time, Cephalus, open your eyes.
The more radiant day will start to rise,
and the flame of the heavens will cause the Dawn to flee.
There is still time, Cephalus, open your eyes.
Cephalus, open your eyes,’
Le jour plus radieux va commencer d’éclore,
Et le flambeau des cieux va faire fuir l’Aurore.
Il en est temps encore, Céphale, ouvre les yeux.
Céphale, ouvre les yeux. »
Récitatif
¢ Elle dit, et le Dieu qui répand la lumière
she said. And the God who pours out the light
from his silvered chariot, showing his first light,
comes to open, but too late, the calm eyelid
of a love both fortunate and unfortunate.
He awakes, he looks round, he sees her, he calls:
But, O superfluous cries and tears!
she flees and leaves to his mortal suffering
only the image of a possession no longer his.
De son char argenté lançant ses premiers feux,
Vient ouvrir, mais trop tard, la tranquille paupière
D’un amour à la fois heureux et malheureux.
Il s’éveille, il regarde, il la voit, il appelle :
Mais ô cris, ô pleurs superflus !
Elle fuit et ne laisse à sa douleur mortelle
Que l’image d’un bien qu’il ne possède plus.
Doucement
∞ Ainsi l’Amour punit un calme trop coupable.
Thus Love punishes a too culpable calm.
Earn, young hearts, a more favourable fate.
Méritez, jeunes cœurs, un sort plus favorable.
Air
§ N’attendez jamais le jour.
Veillez quand l’Aurore veille ;
Le moment où l’on sommeille
N’est pas celui de l’amour.
Never await the day.
Watch when the Dawn is watching;
the moment when one sleeps
is not the moment of love.
Comme un zéphyr qui s’envole,
L’heure de Vénus s’enfuit,
Et ne laisse pour tout fruit
Qu’un regret triste et frivole.
Like a breeze that flies away,
the hour of Venus flees,
and leaves as its only result
a sad and frivolous regret.
Anonymous
For the sake of clarity the texts have been translated in a literal rather than a poetic version.
Robin Adamson
18
Taryn Fiebig
Soprano
Fiona Campbell
Mezzo-soprano
Taryn Fiebig graduated
from the University of
Western Australia in
1993 as a cellist, but
since then she has
gone on to make her
career as a singer.
While she has a deep
interest in Baroque
music (she has studied with Emma Kirkby,
Evelyn Tubb and Anthony Rooley), her musical
tastes and skills are very wide – like another of
her teachers in UK, Jane Manning. As a soloist,
she has performed with the Australian
Brandenburg Orchestra, West Australian
Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Choirs, Perth
Oratorio Choir and Magnetic Pig contemporary
music ensemble. Internationally, Taryn has
performed in the USA, in England with the
English Chamber Orchestra and on BBC Radio 3
and Radio 4. Taryn graduated in 2003 from the
Australian Opera Studio in Perth and is much in
demand as an opera singer, not only for her agile
and beautiful voice, but also for her acting skills.
An Opera Australia Young Artist in 2005 and
2006, she has performed numerous principal
roles with Opera Australia, including starring in
their recent television performance of The
Pirates of Penzance.
Fiona Campbell has
appeared in concert
with the Royal Opera
House Orchestra
Covent Garden, Prague
Chamber Orchestra,
Hong Kong
Philharmonic,
Manchester Camerata
and the West Australian, Adelaide and
Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. Winner of the
1994 ABC Young Performers Award (voice) and
the Australian Singing Competition’s Opera
Awards in 1995, Fiona studied in London with
Josephine Veasey. Highlights have included the
world premiere of Jaz Coleman’s The Marriage
at Cana, with soloists of the Royal Opera House,
Venus in Tannhäuser, Bach’s St Matthew Passion
and Ruggiero in Alcina (Perth International Arts
Festival), Mozart’s C minor Mass (Australian
Chamber Orchestra) and Idamante in Idomeneo
(Pinchgut Opera). A frequent artist with WA
Opera, she made her Opera Australia debut in
2006 as Tessa in The Gondoliers. She holds a
Master of Music degree and is a Lecturer in
Voice at the University of Western Australia.
19
then to the Juilliard School in New York to study
under Ivan Galamian. He created and directs
Ensemble Arcangelo, a period instrument group
based in Perth. He is currently Director of String
Studies at the School of Music at the University
of Western Australia.
Kate Clark
Transverse flute R. Tutz, 2000,
after I.H. Rottenberg
Kate Clark is a graduate in Music from the
University of Sydney. Leaving Australia in 1986
she studied Baroque flute with Barthold Kuijken
at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and, in
1990, Renaissance flute with Anne Smith at the
Schola Cantorum in Basel. Three years later she
gained first prize at the Bruges International
Early Music Competition. Since then she has
performed with many European orchestras,
including the Freiburger Barock Orchester,
Concerto Köln and Rheinische Kantorei, and has
been solo flautist with Les Musiciens du Louvre
in Paris. She has participated in many recordings
of Baroque operas and cantatas and is a regular
guest soloist with the Australian Brandenburg
Orchestra. Kate is the artistic director of The
Attaignant Consort, formed in 1998 to perform
16th-century chansons, dances and polychoral
music. A regular guest lecturer and teacher in
Europe, she lives in Amsterdam.
He has performed with ensembles in Australia
and the USA, including the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, Australian String Quartet, Australian
Brandenburg Orchestra and the Carmel Bach
Festival Orchestra in California. Paul has also
recorded and performed with Ensemble of the
Classic Era.
Sophie Gent
Violin Arthur Robinson, 1998
Sophie Gent graduated in Music from the
University of Western Australia, majoring in
violin as a student under Paul Wright. She
moved to the Netherlands to undertake
postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire
in The Hague with the renowned Japanese
Baroque violinist Ryo Terakado. She is now a
regular performer with many ensembles based
in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Sophie
has been a member of the Japan-based string
quartet Mito dell’Arco and is a regular guest
member of Masques, with whom she has
recently recorded a program of English consort
music on the Arion label.
Paul Wright
Violin Kloz, 1807 (Stuck); Rene Raulin, 2004
(Montéclair)
Paul Wright was born in 1959 in Adelaide where
he began violin studies with Lyndall Hendrickson.
Three years later he was awarded a place at the
Yehudi Menuhin School in England. He went on
to study at the Guildhall School in London and
20
Shaun Lee-Chen
Viola Gofriller, 1719
Suzanne Wijsman
Cello Ian Clarke, 2003, after Montagnana, 1721
Shaun Lee-Chen completed a Bachelor of Music
degree at the University of Western Australia
School of Music in 2000 with First Class
Honours, studying violin with Paul Wright and Pal
Eder. He was the recipient of numerous prizes,
including the Lady Callaway Medal and the UWA
Graduates Prize for top graduating music
student. In 2001 he was accepted into the
Advanced Performance Program at the
Australian National Academy of Music in
Melbourne. Shaun’s performance experience
includes appearances with Ensemble Arcangelo
on Baroque violin and viola, solo and tutti
performances with the West Australian
Symphony Orchestra, a season with the
Australian Youth Orchestra and concerts with
numerous chamber ensembles.
Suzanne Wijsman received her musical
education in the USA and the UK. Her teachers
included Paul Katz, Jane Cowan, Steven Doane
and Richard Kapuscinski. The recipient of a
Fulbright Award, Suzanne has performed
extensively in the USA, Australia and Europe, in
chamber music or as recitalist. From 1990 to
1996 she played with the Stirling String Quartet,
which toured in Australia, Italy and South Korea,
and presented numerous ABC radio broadcasts.
Suzanne has performed often with Ensemble
Arcangelo, Western Australia’s premier early
music group, as well as in numerous local
chamber music concerts. She was a contributor
to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians (2001) articles on the cello (18th-19th
centuries) and fingering; other research interests
include the early history of the violin family,
17th- and 18th-century historical performance
practice, musical iconography and musicians’
health issues. She is a Senior Lecturer in the
School of Music, University of Western Australia.
Shaun Ng
Viola da gamba Sergio Gistri, 2000, after Nicolas
Bertrand, 1687
Born in Singapore, Shaun Ng has studied bass
viol with leading teachers in Vienna, Amsterdam,
The Hague and in the UK. In 2000 he formed
the Singaporean early music group Musica
Obscura and was appointed an Associate Artist
with Singapore’s first independent arts centre,
The Substation. He now lives in Perth, Western
Australia, studying and performing there and
elsewhere.
Stewart Smith
Harpsichord Robert Deegan, 1982,
after Dulcken, 1745
Stewart Smith studied at the Royal Academy of
Music and at London University and graduated
with First Class Honours and with a masters
degree, winning many prizes along the way. In
21
Orchestra and with the early music group
Ensemble Arcangelo. He is a Senior Lecturer
and Coordinator of Classical Music at the
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
where, in addition to taking an active role in
teaching and research, he has conducted a
number of Baroque operas.
Australia he is much in demand as a soloist and
accompanist and has performed at international
festivals in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide as
well as regional festivals thoughout the country.
As a harpsichordist and as an organist, he has
been broadcast many times on the ABC, and he
has appeared on various CD recordings as an
accompanist. Stewart was the assistant organist
to St George’s Cathedral in Perth and regularly
plays with the West Australian Symphony
Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan
Recording Producer, Engineer and Editor
Thomas Grubb
Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb
Publications Editor Natalie Shea
Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd
Cover Photo The Triumph of Bacchus (oil on canvas),
Charles Joseph Natoire (1700-1777) / Lauros /
Giraudon, Louvre, Paris, France / The Bridgeman
Art Library
Booklet Photos Paul Tunzi (pp2 and 10-11),
David McHugh (Fiona Campbell p19),
Suzanne Wijsman (p22)
All the works in this series were recorded in the
chapel of St Ildephonsus at the Benedictine
Community in New Norcia, Western Australia. We
are grateful to the community for their cooperation
and support.
Recorded 14-18 October 2004 (Stuck) and
29 September - 3 October 2005 (Montéclair).
2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
© 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in
Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group,
under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the
owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending,
diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record
without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
A = 413
Temperament by Jean-Philippe Rameau
This recording is part of a larger performance/
research project on French Baroque music funded by
the Australian Federal Government through the
award of an Australian Research Council Linkage
Grant, bringing together researchers from The
University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan
University with other Australian performers, in
association with ABC Classics as industry partner.
The team of investigators (Emeritus Professor David
Tunley, Dr Suzanne Wijsman, Paul Wright and
Stewart Smith) wish to acknowledge the assistance
of consultants Dr Robin Adamson (French language),
Dr Margaret Pride (vocal technique), Alan Bonds
(preparation of scores) and Paul Tunzi (keyboard
instrument technician).
Kate Clark with David Tunley
22
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