Dagmar Saskova - L'air italien en France au temps de Louis XIII (2012)

The collections of airs published in France by Ballard between 1608 and 1643 contain 17 airs on Italian words, of which six are in the polyphonic collections, six are for voice with lute tablature and five for voice with guitar tablature. Taking account of variants and different versions, polyphonic or monodic, of the same pieces, we are left with ten texts – a rather insignificant group amid a repertoire of over 2,000 French airs. The present recording manages to include all these ten texts, thereby presenting almost all the Italian airs published by French composers during Louis XIII’s reign. The musicians of Il Festino have interspersed these airs with a number of instrumental pieces and songs to Spanish texts of the same period. All the Italian airs are by three of the foremost French composers of the time, each of whom moved in court and salon circles.