A Garden of Voices in full bloom

William Christie is well known as one of the ‘Grandseigneurs’ in the Baroque music scene. At the same time, he has made himself a name as a teacher and is in "tireless search for new talent" as we learn from booklet to the present CD. It is in connection with this search that this recording originated. In 2002 Christie’s group ‘Les Arts Florissants’ launched an initiative to promote new singers, they called it ‘Académie du Jardin des Voix’. The seven most promising singers of the second of these académies are recorded on this CD, which got the same name. The programme of the CD therefore is not programmatic; rather it is a selection of pieces which enable these upcoming stars to demonstrate the best of their voice.

The CD’s opening is a selection of numbers from The Indian Queen by Henry Purcell, which was finished by his younger brother Daniel. Each of the seven singers gets its fair share in this selection which is framed by instrumental pieces. This recording stands unmistakably in the line of Christie’s recordings of Purcell’s theatre music (most notably his fine recordings of King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas). The performance is very lively – and even though one cannot see the singers, one can imagine their acting on the stage. The occasional background noises which come through due the live recording (e.g. footsteps) are by no means disturbing, in contrast they enhance the vivid character of the performance and create an interesting and catching atmosphere. Claire Debono sounds truly Purcellian in ‘I attempt from love’s sickness to fly’, her approach is less ‘operatic’ and more ‘song-like’, thus most suitable for this theatre music. Especially charming is the duet of ‘Two married people’, ‘My honey, my pug’, sung by Xavier Sabata and Andrew Tortise. Here their singing becomes a mere caricature of the term, the awfully wrong notes and included shouting represent the theatrical intent perfectly. It is only to regret that this selection is all listed under one track on the CD. Thus it is not possible easily to skip to one’s favourite aria or preferred singer.

This Purcell selection is followed by the third scene of the second act of Domenico Mazzochi’s opera La catena d’Adone. Again all singers take part, and Christie manages to show how different the ‘Italian style’ in Baroque music was to French or English music of the time. Only the slightly French accent of the singers prevents the effect of really a convincing Italian atmosphere. Again, this selection is unfortunately listed under one track.

These two blocks dedicated to one work of one composer each, featuring all the singers, are followed by a selection of single pieces from different composers, partly for one singer only. We are now in the ‘France of the Grand siècle’ as the excellent booklet tells us. The booklet text by Roger Tellart is generally well researched and very informative, it is given in French, English, and German. The lyrics are given in English and French (and in the original Italian of course, if that is the case).

André Morsch excells with refined intensity in Michel Lambert’s famous ‘Vos mépris chaque jour’. Judith Van Wanroij amazes with a combination of excellent trill technique and touching compassion in ‘Nymphes, no songez plus’ from Charpentier’s Vénus et Adonis. This is followed by ‘Fatal Amour’ from Rameau’s Pygmalion, sung by Andrew Tortise. He presents the text in a very engaging way, and his partly breathless singing, slightly wrong intonation and thinned out top notes are a refined device to portray despair and the pains of love.

The ensuing selection of pieces from Campra’s Enée et Didon gives further opportunity to show the soloists united in choir singing as well as for some thrilling instrumental pieces, performed in the known professional manner by Christie and his band. We are told in the booklet that Campra’s version is not comparable with Purcell’s setting of the text (Dido and Aeneas) – accordingly Christie’s approach is different, making greater use of his ingenious French idioms. Konstantin Wolff uses the opportunity to display his fine bass voice in a longer solo part in ‘Dieux! Quelle horreur!’ His articulation is as clear as his phrasing. His consonants, however, are sometimes a bit too sharp (esp. the ‘s’ sounds). This might well be a simple recording problem, but it is not evident in the other singers’ performances.

After that the programme turns to Handel, with a scene from Radamisto. Christie has shown his understanding of Handel’s music in his acclaimed recordings of Orlando and Messiah, and most recently in Serse. The present recording follows in that line. Xavier Sabata is little convincing in the quartet from Radamisto, his voice tends to sound like a badly trained falsetto. However, he finally shows his full ability in the following an aria ‘Minacciami, non ho timor’ from Amadigi. Here his warm alto voice is full and round, and his acting talent is as apparent as in the earlier Purcell duet: he includes some ‘shouted notes’ in the middle part of the aria to the word ‘sprezzabile’.

Handel is followed by a piece by the young Mozart: ‘Al chiaror di que’ bei rai’ from Ascanio in Alba. Composed in 1771 for the wedding of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and Maria Beatrice d’Este, it was performed as part of the festivities in Milan. In this bravura piece Amel Brahim-Djelloul gets ample opportunity to display the virtuosity of her bright soprano voice. However, overall her vocal approach seems a bit too thick for this sort of music. It appears to come from 19th century opera, which is surprising, given her excellent performance in the other pieces on this disc.

All the singers join together again in the last number of this recording: the somewhat amusing septet ‘C’est vous, mon père’ from Philidor’s Tom Jones. Appropriately each of the singers presents a separate character with his own text and music. It is of little surprise that French Baroque composers are in the majority on the CD: here Christie and his crew are in their special field. Nevertheless, the programme presents a good mixture including English and Italian music.

Christie’s ‘Jardin des Voix’ is a very good idea to promote young artists. Their performance on this recording is a convincing, audible proof, that he is clearly going the right way with all his efforts. This CD may serve as a good introduction to the stars of tomorrow as well as to some rather unknown, very interesting pieces of music.

Altogether, this is a beautiful ‘jardin des voix’: a true ‘garden of voices’, with precious flowers of all sorts.