Friday 29 January 2016

Marais & Forqueray - La Gamme - Trio Sonnerie


Rating: 5/5

Review:
Terrific stuff from Trio Sonnerie



This is a very fine disc of French baroque chamber music.  Marais and Forqueray, of course, were two of the greatest French composers of the period and Trio Sonnerie do them proud here.

The music itself is very rewarding and extremely enjoyable.  Both Marais and Forqueray were real masters of composition for a small ensemble and we get plenty of melodic and harmonic invention here, as well as a very pleasing overall effect.  Forqueray's musical portraits of some of his composing contemporaries and other characters are always a pleasure, and the Marais suite from which the disc takes its name is quite remarkable in its scale and brilliance.

Trio Sonnerie are a favourite ensemble of mine.  I love Monica Huggett's work, and her fellow musicians are both brilliant, too, with a string of terrific recordings to their names.  Their playing is as good as I would expect: technically superb and with a depth of understanding both of the music and of each other which lends this real meaning throughout.  It's just very classy chamber playing by three really good musicians and I find it a pleasure form beginning to end.

Linn, of course, make a wonderful job of the recorded sound which is delightfully clear, rich and well balanced, and the presentation and notes are excellent.  This is a terrific disc all round and I can recommend it very warmly.

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