Ensemble Meridiana - Les voyages de l'Amour (2016)

For its 2016 release on Chaconne, Chandos' early music line, Ensemble Meridiana has chosen the theme of love, and selected several Baroque pieces that flirt with the subject by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Jean-Fery Rebel, and Michel Corrette. The ensemble plays period instruments and brings considerable knowledge of authentic Baroque practices and styles to its performances, but Les Voyages de l'Amour is far from a dry, scholarly presentation, because the players infuse the performances with great enthusiasm and deliver the music with vivid colors and delightful virtuosity. The Simphonie pour l'arivée des Génies Elémentaires is the only excerpt from Boismortier's opera-ballet, Les Voyages de l'Amour, but it opens the program with high energy and prepares the way for other vibrant chamber pieces. Rebel's Les caractères de la danse is a comparable tour de force of Baroque dance forms and sonorities, though the Sonate Sixième for violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord is a somewhat sober piece in a formal and abstract vein. But the playfulness and bright instrumentation of Boismortier's Premier ballet de Village en trio, Op. 52 restores the program's buoyant mood, and the subsequent Sonate III, Op. 14, the Concerto à cinq parties, Op. 37, and the Sonate IV, Op. 37 offer a variety of instrumental combinations that refresh the ear. The Concerto comique VI, Op. 8, "Le Plaisir des Dames" by Corrette is a vigorous romp that allows the ensemble to show off its skills, and brings the album to a rousing finish.