Vittorio Ghielmi – Le secret de Monsieur Marais (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Between 1680 and 1728, Marin Marais brought the ‘pièce de viole’ to the peak of perfection. An ‘unremitting’ teacher, he was also the publisher of his own music and invented special signs to notate certain ornaments for the viol. In the course of his research at the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Italian gambist Vittorio Ghielmi studied these manuscript codes, in the hand of Marais himself or his direct students. ‘This led me to a new vision of French Baroque music, which applies not only to the viola da gamba, but also to vocal and orchestral music. These signs reveal the technique of playing in action. Contrary to the static descriptions of the treatises of the time, one has the impression of seeing didactic “videos”’.

This album, entirely devoted to the music of Marais, alternates récits for solo viola with orchestral pieces, all of them reinterpreted in the light of the new discovery of Monsieur Marais’s ‘codes’. In addition to Parisian viols of the time, Vittorio Ghielmi owns an instrument by the famous luthier Michel Colichon (a friend of Marais’s teacher Sainte-Colombe), made in Paris in 1688. Only two of the five surviving viols by Colichon are still in playable condition.

Tracklist:
1. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Tempeste (02:27)
2. Vittorio Ghielmi – Les voix humaines (04:01)
3. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Marche pour les matelots (00:48)
4. Vittorio Ghielmi – La Biscayenne (00:35)
5. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Deuxième air des matelos (00:42)
6. Vittorio Ghielmi – Troisième air des matelots (00:33)
7. Vittorio Ghielmi – Rondeau. Le bijou (03:25)
8. Vittorio Ghielmi – Badinage (05:04)
9. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Gigue (01:06)
10. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – La siamoise (04:27)
11. Vittorio Ghielmi – La polonaise (01:34)
12. Vittorio Ghielmi – Sarabande. La désolée (02:58)
13. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Allemande. La Marianne (03:02)
14. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Sarabande (02:34)
15. Vittorio Ghielmi – Les regrets (03:18)
16. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Ouverture pour servir d’entr’acte (03:42)
17. Vittorio Ghielmi – No.65: Prélude (05:17)
18. Vittorio Ghielmi – Sujet. Diversitez (13:12)
19. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Simphonie du sommeil (02:18)
20. Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra – Marche pour les Pastres (01:50)
21. Vittorio Ghielmi – Ballet en rondeau (04:33)