Jean-Fery Rebel – Ballets Sans Paroles – Pratum Integrum Orchestra (2006) [SACD to FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

Jean-Fery Rebel – Ballets Sans Paroles – Pratum Integrum Orchestra (2006)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:00:00 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: SACD ISO | @ Caro MitisItem Number: CM 0052005
Recorded: 5-7.11.2005 5th Studio of The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR) Moscow, Russia

In 1711 Jean-Féry Rebel published his orchestral Caprice. This piece immediately achieved great popularity among the Parisians and attracted attention of the celebrated Françoise Prévost who set her solo dance to the music of the Caprice. Her performances were so successful that soon after that each ballet dancer, making her debut, had to know Rebel’s Caprice. The transformation of an instrumental piece into a dance was not an extraordinary occurrence for the French Baroque theatre. In this domain it was common to sing a Chaconne or to dance an aria, court performances envisaged vocal numbers together with dances. For that reason, the appearance of Rebel’s Caprice merits special attention: apparently this piece was the first ballet without singing. A year after the Caprice, another piece by the composer, the Boutade (fancy, whim, joke in French), was turned into a dance.

These recordings in the Pratum Integrum series on Caro Mitis were made in Moscow in 2005. These works from the highly original French baroque composer and violinist were edited and arranged by the ensemble’s Artistic Director Pavel Serbin. Rebel had been a student of Lully and played in the prestigious “24 Violins of the King” at the French court. He was one of the first French composers to create sonatas in the Italian style, and his music was performed in London under Handel’s baton.
The 23-minute “new symphony” The Elements – the major piece here – was a precursor of the romantic period in being a major programmatic work, and one of the first depicting the creation of the world. It opens with a discordant cluster of notes represent Chaos – perhaps the first time such dissonance appeared in the history of European composed music. There are movements for the elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water. The Characters of the Dance is a short ballet about a ballet. It boasts 14 very brief movements in styles such as the Courante, Menuet, Bourree, Saraband, and so on, and is a good example of Rebel’s “choreographed symphonies.”
The playing of the small period instrument orchestra is on a very high plane, and the disc’s surround sonics are as usual top flight – the product of an association with Polyhymnia International. Anyone enjoying instrumental music of the French baroque period will want to have this disc. –Disc reviews John Sunier “Audiophile Audition”

Tracklist:
Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747)
Caprice (1711)
1 Caprice (1711) [2:37]
Les élémens, simphonie nouvelle (1737–1738)
2 Le Cahos [5:55]
3 Loure I [2:13]
4 Chaconne [2:40]
5 Ramage [1:03]
6 Rossignols [1:16]
7 Loure II [2:11]
8 Tambourin I & II [2:01]
9 Sicilienne [1:28]
10 Air pour l’Amour [1:19]
11 Caprice [2:23]
Boutade (1712)
12 Joke (1712) [5:38]
Les plaisirs champêtres (1734)
13 Musette I [0:51]
14 Gavotte [1:52]
15 Musette II [0:23]
16 Chaconne [2:40]
17 Passepied [1:26]
18 Bourrée/Rigaudon/Bourrée [3:21]
Les caractères de la danse, fantaisie (1734)
19 Prelude [0:31]
20 Courante [0:29]
21 Menuet [0:25]
22 Bourrée [0:22]
23 Chaconne [0:55]
24 Sarabande [0:36]
25 Gigue [0:28]
26 Rigaudon [0:17]
27 Passepied [0:26]
28 Gavotte [0:22]
29 Sonate I [0:36]
30 Loure [0:15]
31 Musette [1:46]
32 Sonate II [1:12]
Fantaisie (1729)
33 Grave [1:19]
34 Chaconne [3:05]
35 Loure [2:03]
36 Tambourin [2:25]