Rendezvous

Continuing their collaboration of two years ago, The Marais Project and Perth-based HIP Company turn their attention to the elegance and sophistication of the French Baroque.

Drawing inspiration from the story of famed composer and viola da gambist, Marin Marais and his teacher, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe – as told in the cult movie ‘Tous le matin du monde’ (all the mornings of the world) – this program also highlights music by a range of composers including Couperin, Rebel, and Charpentier.

Many of these musicians worked at the zenith of French artistic achievement during the era of Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King,’ but they rendezvous in 2025 at Mosman Art Gallery!

Describing the music of the French Baroque one expert wrote:

• ‘The permanent search for grace and elegance (i.e. good taste) was typically French. France had expertise in chords and timbres and was skilled at fitting music to the text or plot, finding the right declamation and expression, whether in imitation of Nature or to express an emotion. All composers, playwrights and Court and church musicians contributed to France’s drive for refinement.’

It was not that the composers of the French Baroque did not understand how to write complex contrapuntal music with the gravity of Bach or Handel, they just had a different frame of reference. Their focus being on grace, elegance and refinement. The essence of refinement, of course, being defined by the French themselves! Picture the contrast: a great, complex fugue thundered out on a German church organ versus a light, witty character piece plucked on the lute in the gardens of Versailles. As the EU regularly reminds the world: it is the French that lovingly craft champagne, the rest of us just make sparkling wine…

The Marais Project

▪          Susie Bishop - soprano

▪          Tommie Andersson – guitar, theorbo & lute

▪          Jenny Eriksson - viola da gamba

HIP Company

▪          Bonnie de la Hunty – soprano

▪          Sarah Papadopoulos – violin

▪          Krista Low – viola da gamba