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4.5
The first track. A short silence. Then, two first bars beaten by a distant and cavernous drum, immediately echoed by recorders and strings. The pavane has started : the pitch and the tone are set. So, I might as well say that if your ears were unable to bear it, you can stop there because the whole atmosphere of the CD is given from the very beginning, and the atmosphere is relatively strange. The moods are various but always wrapped in a kind of strangeness.Anyway, if your hearing organs chose to continue on, you're about to (re)discover the XVI century through the world of Claude Gervaise, one of its most curious composer. And as you no doudt guess, I *do* like his universe ! Yeah, I know : those who are already familiar with Renaissance music and already listened to some of his scores could tell me Gervaise was not as sophisticated, or even as brilliant as others like John Dowland. But I don't agree; in my opinion, he deserves a place at least as important and that disc is maybe a first step for his rehabilitation. We don't know much about his life, except he was a musician (perhaps, a viola player) at the court of french kings Francis I and Henri II. Most of his works, first published by Pierre Attaingnant in the years 1540's/1550's, includes lute songs and especially instrumental music for little ensembles of strings and winds. The flutist Christian Mendoze gathered all of the members of his Musica Antiqua, plus a quartet of sackbuts and trumpets, to record characteristic excerpts from it. And what a result ! It's a double event : as far as I know, it's the only available CD entirely dedicated to Gervaise and one of the rare to contain only pure instrumental music with such a variety of instruments often playing *together*. Moreover, his interpretation enlightens and enhances all the facets of Gervaise's personality : gay (I mean lively and bright, of course) like in the Bransle Gay III, pompous like in the Pavane de la Guerre, solemn or even grave like in the Pavane Passamaize (whose second version, with the sackbuts, is really heartrending), melancholy like in the Bransle X. But the top is reached when Jacques Henry and Philippe Krutli (the sackbutists) make duos. Oh, my God ! How could I make you feel the same emotion as mine when I hear them ! The Bransle de Champaigne I and II, and the Gaillarde I (*don't* miss the Gaillarde I) are so... so... so aerial, so out-of-the-world, they do have that certain je ne sais quoi ! I could almost cry, I swear you ! And when I think people were supposed to dance on it... I have other recordings of Musica Antiqua, this one is sure one of its best. Christian Mendoze did improve his way of interpretation.Well, you will ask me, if that CD is so marvellous to me, why did I mark it 4 stars and not 5 ? To speak frankly, I'll give Christian Mendoze two reproaches : firstly, he divided his recordings in 5 parts (4 instrumental suites + a long pavane). The 3rd suite is too quiet, and (alas) sometimes boring. You can find there interesting pieces. Unfortunately, it is excessively uniform. It's a shame... Secondly, he made the Bransle III played by crumhorns and shawms. Not that I'm directly shocked by that. Yet, these instruments can trouble the modern listener because of their shrill sound. They were none the less Renaissance instruments and other artistic directors like Philip Pickett used them many times. No, the thing is, the Bransle III is the *only* track which is played that way, a way which clashes with the rest. I wonder if Christian Mendoze didn't dare to use them more for fear of shocking or just to quickly show what Marguerite Humber could do with a shawm. Hmf ! It wasn't worth a try.Globally, Claude Gervaise's danceries is quite a good CD. I recommend it to newbies in Renaissance music because it is accessible for ears and wallet and gives a good example of what instrumental Renaissance music probably sounded like. A good starting point. I also recommend it to the others because we have there a way to enjoy our passion for XVI century music once more and more than ever !
