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Barricades
Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Thomas Dunford (lute), Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano), Marc Mauillon (baritone), Myriam Rignol (viola da gamba)
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 5th June 2020
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
Though still both around 30, Dunford and Rondeau are already steeped in this rich and subtle repertoire, and play it like they own it …Both also like to indulge in some slowish tempos, but Dunford’s...
Barricades
Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Thomas Dunford (lute), Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano), Marc Mauillon (baritone), Myriam Rignol (viola da gamba)
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 5th June 2020
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
Though still both around 30, Dunford and Rondeau are already steeped in this rich and subtle repertoire, and play it like they own it …Both also like to indulge in some slowish tempos, but Dunford’s...
About
The repertoire on the album features music from the court at Versailles during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV: François Couperin (1668 - 1733), Robert De Visée (v. 1650-1665 - after 1732), Michel Lambert (1610-1696), Marin Marais (1656 - 1728) Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704), Jean-Henry D’Anglebert (1629- 1691) Antoine Forqueray (1672-1745) Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764).
“Both of us have grown up with this music from the cradle of our earliest infancy; […] It is music that allowed us to become what we are, while at the same time encouraging us to question things constantly. […] Now, playing the music – because, as we all know, we play rather than make music – has become a part that each of us plays, played here as a double act. Each one for himself, with his instrument as a crucible, and at the same time each of us for the other, since after all we are engaged in a performance. We don’t know how to play alone. This is the paradox of the game of music: a cross between extremely precise rules for how to play – how to read this cryptic language we spend our life deciphering, like hieroglyphs – and the magic to which it leads us – its at once organic and dreamlike dimension. This is where we find our shared expression: in a shared ordeal, we still don’t fully understand. […] Our playing goes far beyond dialogue: for us, it is not about responding to each other so much as it is about questioning and inviting our listeners to join us in this exploration with no answer or resolution. […] So we brood over this music, we play it endlessly, and we play endlessly. That is precisely what we do in this programme composed almost exclusively of rondos (refrain–verse–refrain–verse), and pieces with repeats in binary form.” - Jean Rondeau
Contents and tracklist
- Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Marc Mauillon (baritone), Myriam Rognol (viola da gamba), Thomas Dunford (archlute)
- Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Thomas Dunford (archlute), Myriam Rignol (viola da gamba)
- Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano), Myriam Rignol (viola da gamba), Thomas Dunford (archlute)
- Jean Rondeau (harpsichord), Myriam Rognol (viola da gamba), Marc Mauillon (baritone), Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano), Thomas Dunford (archlute)
Spotlight on this release
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Barricades from Jean Rondeau and Thomas Dunford
5th Jun 2020
David enjoys the début recording of Jean Rondeau and Thomas Dunford's harpsichord-lute duo, featuring a selection of French Baroque treasures with vocal cameos from Marc Mauillon and Lea Desandre.
Awards and reviews
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Presto Recording of the Week5th June 2020
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Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2020
August 2020
Though still both around 30, Dunford and Rondeau are already steeped in this rich and subtle repertoire, and play it like they own it …Both also like to indulge in some slowish tempos, but Dunford’s way with a piece like Marais’s Les voix humaines captivates with its intense tenderness, while Rondeau has a habit of placing every note with immensely satisfying rightness, sweetness and precision.
5th June 2020
If I hadn’t seen it in writing that many of these tracks were arranged versions, they would have seemed like perfectly plausible originals to my ears (as indeed several of them are). They integrate the instruments together perfectly, and the character of the pieces never suffers; this light-touch arrangement in no way lessens the authenticity of the album, much less its musical appeal.
