Music for plays by
William Shakespeare
has been performed from his own time down to our own. This is much less true of
Molière
, even in France, and even though many of his comedies were conceived with music and dance in mind. Here,
Les Arts Florissants
and longtime director
William Christie
seek to redress the balance.
Christie
is not the first to record this music, but these are especially crisp readings;
has increasingly often offloaded the baton to younger conductors, but his characteristic flair remains fully in evidence here. He includes excerpts from music by
Lully
and
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
for several different plays, with a big chunk from that by
Charpentier
for
Le Malade Imaginaire
, better known in English as The Imaginary Invalid. There are other recordings of this music specifically, but it is nevertheless preferable to have a large group of excerpts from the same play; these give a feel for how music was incorporated into the action. Indeed, one can imagine that these songs and interludes were prized by audiences, for they include cutting-edge stylistic elements quite distinct from the lumbering forms of French court music: new dances, sharp eglogues, or pastoral dialogues. Sample the Canarios, from the rhythmically vigorous and in some cases African-influenced Canarios from Spain, in the rapid-fire "Deuxième Intermède" from the
Malade Imaginaire
music. There was no Philharmonie de Paris when this music was written, but the sound environment offers a reasonable facsimile. This album will appeal equally to those seriously interested in French theater and general Baroque music lovers. ~ James Manheim