L'Achéron

EARLY MUSIC

Marin Marais

Viol pieces

After seven years devoted to the recording of the twenty or so discs comprising the 600 or so pieces of the five Books of Viola Pieces by Marin Marais, François Joubert-Caillet proposes here to make the public appreciate the most beautiful jewels he has found along this long path.

This titanic adventure, unanimously acclaimed by the press (Diapasons d'Or, Chocs de Classica), if it will mark the history of the disc (Classica, July 2021), has enabled François Joubert-Caillet and L'Achéron to grasp in depth the genius of Marais: this incredible imagination making him both propose and invent new ideas in forms and settings that are always identical, this visionary side pushing back the limits of the instrument and its writing to lead his music and the viol into uncharted territories; Marais' personality also let itself be seen, often portrayed as an Angel in opposition to the devil Forqueray, he showed a variety of affects, colours, contrasts that were always astonishing.

The five Books would comprise twenty or so concerts, and it is proposed here to perform them either in five concerts, each one featuring the most beautiful treasures -known or unknown- from each of the five Books of Pièces de Viole, or in a single concert.

Cast (from 2 to 4 musicians)

François Joubert-Caillet, bass viol
Sarah van Oudenhove, bass viol
Miguel Henry, theorbo
Philippe Grisvard, harpsichord

Press

Jean-Marc Petit, La Voix du Nord, Juillet 2023

(…) Arrivé au terme des presque 600 pièces de viole (vingt disques!) qui composent ces cinq Livres
François Joubert-Caillet continue de nous enchanter.
Cette musique sans âge se déguste à toute heure, et est un baume pour la vie

Discography

First book of viol pieces

Ricercar/Outhere, 2018

Second book of pieces of violas

François Joubert-Caillet, viola da gamba

Ricercar, 2019

Release October 11th 2019

Troisième Livre de pièces de violes

François Joubert-Caillet,viola da gamba
L'ACHÉRON

Ricercar, 2021

Between the publication of the Second Book in 1701 and that of the Third Book, ten years went by, during which Marais established himself as a composer of tragédies lyriques. In the meantime, however, a number of young viol players, some of whom had been his pupils, had just published their first collections of pièces de viole. Marais therefore had to reaffirm his position as the reigning master of the genre, a mission accomplished to perfection with this new opus, in which he strove to offer his public easier pieces alongside others that of a more demanding nature, in order to ‘satisfy those who are more advanced upon the viol’. His style had changed too: here, character pieces form an increasingly important complement to the traditional suites.

Quatrième Livre de pièces de violes

François Joubert-Caillet,viola da gamba
L'ACHÉRON

Ricercar, 2021

It was two years after the death of Louis XIV that Marin Marais published his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole. In it he asserted himself as the master of the genre, offering his public both pieces intended for "those who are advanced on the viol" and for the most virtuoso musicians. Stylistically, the classical forms are distorted, the suites no longer following the traditional pattern and making increasing use of character pieces. The sometimes whimsical imagery provided by these new pieces and the formal freedom asserted find their apogee in the surprising Suitte d'un goût étranger, the thirty or so pieces of which both approach hitherto unheard-of tonalities and offer a multitude of characters and sometimes exotic evocations. And in a new way, somewhat influenced by the genre of Italian trios, Marais concluded this Quatrième Livre with two suites for three viols, a genre he claimed was "new to France.