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Appréciation d'ensemble / Overall evaluation :
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Reviewer: Anthony Burton
The 'angel' whose stories are told here is not, despite the arresting booklet photographs of her sporting fluffy wings, the German-born, Madrid-based viola da gamba player Johanna Rose. Rather its the 17th- and 18th-century French master of the instrument Marin Marais, who was described by contemporaries as playing 'like an angel', and who soared from humble origins to a position at court and the conductorship of the Paris Opéra.
Groups of pieces by Marais, mostly from Books Il to IV of his Pièces de viole, are interspersed with single works by Robert de Visée (a Passacaille featuring the theorbo), François Couperin, (another Passacaille but with solo viol) and Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose solo harpsichord piece is named as a memorial tribute to Marais.
Johanna Rose’s selection
from Marais's output includes some of his more ambitious pieces, both in length
(meaning five minutes or so!) and in the degree of virtuosity required. The more
taxing episodes, such as the rapidly changing chords towards the end of 'Grand
Ballet' and the furions passage-work of Le Tourbillon ('The whirlwind'),
seem to put a strain on her technique, with a suspicion of scratchiness
heightened by a close recording. Elsewhere, she produces a lovely singing tone
for the more meditative numbers such as La Rêveuse ('The dreamer'); and
her two accompanists are sensitive and inventive, combining to produce colourful
bell sounds in Cloches ou Carillon. But for
an all-round view of Marais, seek
out the calmly authoritative Robert Smith on Resonus (reviewed in the November
issue).
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