With performers' increased focus on the music of the French Baroque, it's rare to find an album exploring a completely unknown repertory, but that's what's happening here, and although this is certainly a specialized release, it's of great interest to anyone. The main feature is that most of the music consists of settings of poetry by the titular Comtesse de la Suze, Henriette de Coligny. Although she chose to use it as a pen name, her Comtesse de la Suze title is more than a bit ironic, inasmuch as she obtained a kind of ...
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With performers' increased focus on the music of the French Baroque, it's rare to find an album exploring a completely unknown repertory, but that's what's happening here, and although this is certainly a specialized release, it's of great interest to anyone. The main feature is that most of the music consists of settings of poetry by the titular Comtesse de la Suze, Henriette de Coligny. Although she chose to use it as a pen name, her Comtesse de la Suze title is more than a bit ironic, inasmuch as she obtained a kind of divorce from the Comte de la Suze at a time when such a thing was rarely done in France. The Count was her second husband; her first marriage, too, was unusual, for it was made in the name of love, and it is love that inspired Henriette as a poet, love as expressed in bold but inward strokes, with striking imagery that inspired a variety of composers. Many of the pieces, designated as chansons, come from several 17th century volumes called the Livre d'airs des différents...
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