This Concert Parisien, subtitled "from the era of Louis XV," is something more specific still: it offers music more or less closely connected with the circle of Alexandre La Riche de La Pouplinière (oddly spelled "Poplinière" here), a music patron whose suburban home was a major incubator of music by Rameau and the generation that followed him. The music on this disc is not brainy, experimental Rameau, or the smooth chamber music of the Concerts Spirituels; rather, it's progressive, allied in spirit to the literary salons ...
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This Concert Parisien, subtitled "from the era of Louis XV," is something more specific still: it offers music more or less closely connected with the circle of Alexandre La Riche de La Pouplinière (oddly spelled "Poplinière" here), a music patron whose suburban home was a major incubator of music by Rameau and the generation that followed him. The music on this disc is not brainy, experimental Rameau, or the smooth chamber music of the Concerts Spirituels; rather, it's progressive, allied in spirit to the literary salons that Pierre Jaquier in his concise booklet notes called "temples of wit," and, above all, fun. All the music dates from the 1740s and consists of trios and quartets with a flute, violin, or in one case a viol as the lead instrument. The music is tuneful, with the texture showing the influence of the Italian sonata, but there is a very French humor that pervades the whole. Rameau's "concerts," essentially trio sonatas yet designated for "keyboard, flute, violin, and bass viol,"...
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