Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague: Collegium Marianum and Olivier Schneebeli interpreting Michel-Richard de Lalande
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| (c) LSSH Martin Divíšek
The French music of the 17th and 18th centuries reigns in the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague - the main theme of the festival is Versailles. The magnificence of the place, which during its time represented for many European royal courts an unprecedented pattern, takes over the baroque Prague for a few weeks and, from the depths of time, invites the audience of the most prominent: Roi du Soleil. He is presented here with all dignity, so the opening concert (11th July) led us not to the world of love-affairs, but to the chapel in whose impressive space Louis XIV regularly attended the morning masses and where the music of the highest quality was played. The chapel of Versailles was substituted for the baroque church of St. Simon and Judas in Prague and more than fifty musicians were led by conductor Olivier Schneebeli: a residential ensemble Collegium Marianum, extended by foreign guests, Les Pages and Les Chantres from the Centre of Baroque Music in Versailles (CMBV) and four vocal soloists.
The evening belonged exclusively to the works of the author, whose grand motets are among the best that French Baroque spiritual music can offer us. Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726), though his name almost fell into oblivion, dedicated his life to the Royal Chapel for forty years and gradually mastered it as a king's favourite. According to contemporary reports, an excellent singer, organist (in four Parisian churches), violinist and harpsichordist was admired for an extraordinary feel for Latin psalm texts (his pupil described him as "Latin Lully"), compositional skills on the one hand, simplicity and nature on the other side. His compositions were recognized not only by the elite audience of the Versailles chapel, but also by the broader audience after the introduction of public concerts in 1725. Laland's motets were very popular, in the 18th century they were often played and also copied, as evidenced in many French libraries. Thanks to the intensive research activities of the CMBV, these works can be reconstructed so we could hear the original versions of three grand motets in Prague, two of which were world premieres (Venite, exultemus Domino S. 58/i, Dominus regnavit S. 65/i).
Venite, exultemus Domino from 1701 and Dominus regnavit from 1704 are examples of Laland's late, high style. The author very well "cut” the individual Psalm verses so that their content reached the listeners in the greatest possible intensity. He used the grandeur of homophone choral parts, the intimacy of solo parts, the sophisticated work with pauses (for example, the "sobs" of the choir in the lyrics), the expressive harmony or the tempo contrasts within one verse - but as soon as we got the impression that we had discovered the composer, he would surprise us with a completely different approach. In the solo parts, there was the elegance of the gallant opera elements including typical French light ornaments, “lost endings” and also small echoes (the prediction of the masterpieces of J. S. Bach and G. F. Händel). He masterly worked with the colours of voices and instruments, whose parts are more than mere doubles of the vocal line. In the earlier motet De profundis S. 23/i of 1689, which ended the concert, there was less of "opera", more polyphony and kind of austerity.
The interpretation of all the musicians, who have barely entered the imaginary church stage, can only be praised to the heavens. Both choirs (children's pages in costumes) sang their parts here with fragile finesse, here with more pomp, always very airy and pure. The charming soprano, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, who seemed to have jumped out of a historical painting, developed a colourful soprano in front of us, which was particularly gorgeous in the ornamental meditation of the psalm Dominus regnavit (Adorate omnem eus angeli...). Hence as a velvet was tenor of Reinoud van Mechelen, with whom contrasted pleasantly sharper and slightly narrower tenor of François Joron. The extraordinary spiritual charisma of Lisandro Abadie's baritone covered the whole quartet with such a strong concentration, that each of his solos sounded like a real biblical prophecy. It must be added that all soloists have excellent singing technique that allow them to achieve fairly equal tones. Two solo children's voices and a young counter-tenor of Les Chantres excelled in the final psalm. This little pinch of colour added to the chiaroscuro of Psalm 130 the true amount of tenderness.
In the orchestra we could hear especially the shining virtuosity of the violinist Lenka Torgersen, flutists Jana Semerádová and Martina Bernášková, hoboists Petra Ambrosi with Inge Marg and the bassoonists Kryštof Lada and Stéphane Tamby. String ensemble stood out in the entrance piece of the evening, Grande pièce en G ré sol S. 161/1 from the Symphony for the King’s Supper. A specific colour to the strings was added by instruments which were built for CMBV to enhance authenticity: countertenor, tenor and quintet violins. We would still like to hear in basso continuo an instrument that would be closer to the sound of the original Versailles four-manual organ of Robert Cliquot ...
In spite of many times mentioned problematic acoustics of the Church of St. Simon and Judas, the musicians managed to introduce one of the great masters of French music in brilliance, strength and energy. Thanks to the firm hand of the optimistically smiling conductor Olivier Schneebeli, who has studied these works and breathed them life. Traditionally, good quality of programme texts, including translations of Latin psalms to Czech (by Martin Bažil, director of the Institute of Greek and Latin Studies of the Charles University), deserves praise. To complete this I add, that this year the festival continues to collaborate with the Centre of Baroque Music in Versailles and the French Institute in Prague, which was launched in the last season and is scheduled for three years.
© Dina Snejdarova
Published with a kind permission of Czech classical music magazine Harmonie.
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