Musica Franca, Nadina Mackie Jackson, Mathieu Lussier - Boismortier: Sonatas for Two Bassoons and Continuo (2005)

The booklet notes for this selection of sonatas by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier lay stress on this French Baroque composer's reconciliation of French and Italian elements -- something that most of his contemporaries accomplished in one way or another. A glance at the movement titles, which mix and match Italian tempo designations with the names of French dances, suffices to suggest the general outlines of the music. The real appeal of these sonatas for two bassoons and continuo (also published as suitable for cellos or violas da gamba) is their unusual mixture of charm and extreme concision. The majority of the individual movements are under two minutes long, and none is much more than three. They are like perfectly honed, perfectly graceful comic utterances in a Molière play, and the best lines come when the contrabassoon makes one of its periodic appearances. The continuo accompaniment switches off between harpsichord, organ, and theorbo, sometimes dropping out to create bassoon (or bassoon-contrabassoon) duets. Presumably the absence of the continuo is indicated in Boismortier's score, but the rather unhelpful notes don't address the issue. They do, however, devote considerable space to a composer who is not represented on this disc at all. The musicians at the center of the action, bassoonists Mathieu Lussier and Nadina Mackie Jackson and contrabassoonist Fraser Jackson, are ideal for this music: agile, light, and lyrical. You may think you don't particularly like the sound of one bassoon, let alone two of them, but try these slight slices of French elegance and you may change your mind about the instrument.