M Marais Pièces de Viole, Livre IV – Suite No. 1 in D minor; F Couperin Pièces de Viole – Suite No. 1 in E minor; M Marais Pièces de Viole, Livre IV – Suite No. 2 in D major
This was, I guess, a chilling-out but not very inspiring way of spending a damp wet morning in Buxton. A sequence of prose and music was presented but unfortunately the performers were not holding the mikes close enough to them so I was unable to disentangle why this was happening and what the prose pieces were (from the little I could hear they seemed to be animal fables of some kind – why they were being played with this music I have no idea, unless Louis XIV’s bedtimes involved both events happening at the same time). I seem to remember a rather sad or gloomy film about the composer Marais (but little seems to be known about his adult life, other than that he had 19 children!). The pieces followed each other pleasantly enough but without any being memorable. At least 5 minutes of this 50 minute recital must have been spent tuning, a consequence of the miserable weather we were told
Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France and one more author – Portrait de Marin Marais (Musée de la musique, Paris) CC by 2
John's musical journey 