Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Louis-Gabriel Guillemain: Flute Quartets, Op. 12 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The acclaimed Amsterdam-based early music ensemble Fantasticus returns to Resonus with this new recording of the complete Op. 12 flute quartets by the French composer and violinist Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705–1770).
The ensemble are joined by the internationally renowned and celebrated period flautist Wilbert Hazelzet for this musical journey through this enticing and elegant set of six sonatas, the first of two sets of Sonates en Quatuors by this engaging composer.

A contemporary of Sammartini, Blavet, Gluck and C. P. E. Bach, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-1770) knew the cruel fate of many composers: famous in life, forgotten post-mortem. A “musician ordinaire” in the court of Louis XV with a salary to match, he made a great name for himself as a virtuoso violinist and composer. But alas, he also developed a reputation for extravagant tastes, and even though he was rich and protected by the court, he soon found himself ruined, driven to alcoholism and finally suicide. His work (or at least that which has survived in published form to our times) only runs to 18 works, all of them instrumental, stretching from 1734 to 1762; a regular at the Concerts Spirituels, he developed a considerable reputation as a symphonist, although his timidity seems to have kept him from the stage. The Six Sonatas in Quartet Op. 12, were published in Paris in 1743. According to the preface, it is a collection of “Amusing and Amorous Conversations between a Transverse Flute, a Bass Viol and Basso Continuo”; the style is not without its nods to the Italian fashions then very much in vogue: hardly surprising, given that Guilleman crossed the Alps several times in order to get to know Italian music better. The Fantasticus ensemble plays expertly on period instruments – who, after all would dare play the works of “minor” baroque composers on modern instruments? – with plenty of fantasy and contrasting moods.

Tracklist:
1-01. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 12, No. 1 – I. Allegro moderato (04:13)
1-02. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 12, No. 1 – II. Aria (05:18)
1-03. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 12, No. 1 – III. Allegro, ma non presto (04:13)
1-04. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 12, No. 2 – I. Allegro moderato (04:35)
1-05. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 12, No. 2 – II. Aria (06:04)
1-06. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 12, No. 2 – III. Allegro (03:19)
1-07. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 12, No. 3 – I. Allegro moderato (03:33)
1-08. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 12, No. 3 – II. Larghetto (04:00)
1-09. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 12, No. 3 – III. Aria (02:56)
1-10. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 12, No. 3 – IV. Allegro (03:57)
2-11. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 4 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 4 – I. Allegro moderato (05:05)
2-12. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 4 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 4 – II. Aria (04:33)
2-13. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 4 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 4 – III. Allegro (04:02)
2-14. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 12, No. 5 – I. Allegro moderato (04:57)
2-15. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 12, No. 5 – II. Aria (03:58)
2-16. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 12, No. 5 – III. Andante (01:54)
2-17. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 12, No. 5 – IV. Allegro, ma non presto (04:45)
2-18. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 6 in C Major, Op. 12, No. 6 – I. Allegro moderato (05:07)
2-19. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 6 in C Major, Op. 12, No. 6 – II. Aria (05:42)
2-20. Wilbert Hazelzet & Fantasticus – Sonata No. 6 in C Major, Op. 12, No. 6 – III. Allegro (04:35)