Chauvon – Les nouveaux bijoux
Washington McClean; Alison Melville;
Julia Wedman; Michael McCraw;
Charlotte Nediger
early-music.com EMCCD-7773
www.early-music.com
A virtual who’s who of North American early music specialists jump headfirst into the clever and charming world of French baroque composer François Chauvon, whose name may be unfamiliar to the reader. A student of Couperin, he composed a small number of chamber and vocal works between 1710 and 1740.
Tibiades (1717) is a collection of suites for baroque oboe and flute, with some suites including violin. Influenced by the Italian concertato texture style of the time, the instruments to be played were specified, but which line for each was not indicated. The performers are at liberty to choose their part, and when to play tutti and solo. Here, the performers not only choose their parts, but expand their choices by the addition of bassoon and continuo. The resulting instrumentation creates charming and distinct settings.
Eight suites are featured. Each is short in duration, with the occasional movement under one minute. The 44 second “Arpégement, le Pièche (gracieusement)” is a memorable harpsichord interlude from the Première Suite. Chauvon also dabbled with programmatic titles. The “la Mélancholique” movement from the Troisième Suite is slow and somewhat glum in notation and the selected instrumentation.
As to be expected, all the performers are spectacular. I especially marvel at Alison Melville’s breath control on recorders and traverse flute and harpsichordist Charlotte Nediger’s extraordinary continuo expertise. This recording is early music at its best.
