The gentle, brilliant bros of French baroque music

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


The gentle, brilliant bros of French baroque music
Harpsichordist, Jean Rondeau and lutenist, Thomas Dunford, collaborate from their respective homes in France, photographed via computer monitor in New York in video call, May 28, 2020. Dunford and Rondeau create their own duo repertory on the album “Barricades.” Yudi Ela/The New York Times.

by Zachary Woolfe



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- There is no real body of music for a lute and harpsichord duo. But from the first time they played together, Jean Rondeau and Thomas Dunford were a natural fit, weaving around each other gently yet exuberantly. The pricks of harpsichord (Rondeau) and the strum of lute (Dunford) glinted and blended, as if different colors of a single instrument.

“It’s very rare that you find someone, where you become one person when you play,” Dunford, 32, said of Rondeau, 29, when both joined a Zoom call recently from their respective homes in France.

The first recorded product of their collaboration is out now on the Erato label: “Barricades,” an assured yet probing collection of French baroque music by famous composers (Couperin, Charpentier, Rameau, Marin Marais) and those less so (Antoine Forqueray, Robert de Visée).

Full of dreamy repetitions and dazzling changes, and played with a combination of alert precision and dancey, low-slung freedom, it is the perfect album for the hot, lazy summer days upon us. Except when it slices through the humidity with finger-blurring yet lucid bursts of brashness, like the duo’s version of a Forqueray viol piece called “Jupiter.”

“We kept playing and playing, trying to get the best possible take,” Dunford said of that track. “We had been playing it for six hours, and it felt like so much energy, like in rock ’n’ roll. Jean said, ‘My fingers are melting.’ And I said, ‘You can do it, man.’ And we kept on going.”

Rondeau is known, and occasionally dinged, for dipping his fingers into jazz in addition to his superb recordings of Bach, Scarlatti and Rameau standards. But since he has long been most distinctive on the classical scene for his gravity-defying hair and wild beard, he made an immediate impression when he got on the Zoom call in April from his home overlooking the ocean in Brittany: He had shaved the day before, for the first time in about three years.

“It’s a very nice look,” said Dunford, just outside Paris. “You’re very serious.”

Here are edited excerpts from the conversation that ensued.

How did you two meet?

THOMAS DUNFORD: We were playing chamber music with this group Les Ambassadeurs. I remember we had to get the harpsichord into my flat because we were rehearsing there. And we instantly clicked. That was seven years ago, maybe?

We were improvising together. When you’re playing continuo (an accompanying part in a baroque ensemble), it’s like jazz or rock; you’re creating something out of nothing. But we’d end up always creating the same thing at the same moment. It was like, I’ve got a bro here.

I’m used to the harpsichord being a little stiff and boring, and when I heard Jean for the first time, even before our duet, he was playing some Bach, and it was so free. I called a friend, and I said, “This guy, he sings.”

JEAN RONDEAU: I remember the first concerts that we did, just the two of us. We started to rehearse and without saying anything, we did exactly the same movement and dynamics, breathing in the music. We had really something in common. It’s not so often you can meet a musician with whom it’s so exactly: We speak the same language; we don’t need to use words in rehearsal to try to explain how it should work; we just let the music flow.

DUNFORD: It’s more about, what’s the character, what’s the philosophy. We can get into deeper things very quickly. It’s a lot of adventures since then.

RONDEAU: What I really appreciate in Thomas’ playing is he is able to listen. The best quality of a musician is to listen really deeply, and we were focused on that immediately. The lute has a larger dynamic range, and the harpsichord palette is a bit less. And Thomas is able to really go inside the harpsichord sound.

How did you create this new album?b

RONDEAU: First it was a human connection and a cultural common background we have, because we’ve both played baroque music since we were very young. We have the same deep love of this music. There are no pieces written precisely for lute and harpsichord, but we decided to make music.

DUNFORD: So we have to kind of adapt lute pieces and harpsichord pieces. I came up with a suite by de Visée; it’s lute pieces, but de Visée rewrote it for a top part and a bass part, so it was easy for us to adapt. The Couperins, which are harpsichord pieces, we kept them the way they are, and I had to find my way to underline the text in a smart way that wouldn’t unbalance the music.

RONDEAU: This repertoire is very, very specific in terms of style. French baroque music is unique. It’s noble music. It speaks to Louis XIV’s love for the arts in general, and dance. He was a beautiful dancer.

And at the court of Versailles, there were a lot of musicians, and the creation was prolific, with the composers interpreting their own music. What we wanted to do with this project was recreate this spirit. Not the social spirit of Versailles, but the spirit of the musicians, the creations.

DUNFORD: When you think of Lully’s orchestra at Versailles, there was Marais, Robert de Visée, Couperin. These guys would play together. And it must have sounded amazing. Couperin and de Visée must have heard each other’s music. They didn’t even have to write it down; they just heard what the other was doing. Rather than manuscripts and trying to be very scholarly, they were just tunes and trying to create the music in the moment.

RONDEAU: The more you go back in the past, the less the music is precisely written. The end of the 17th century, beginning of the 18th century, everything is not precisely written yet. But there is more and more specification. It’s in between. We can take freedom inside this music, but it’s precise. In Couperin, every note has a meaning: It’s in a certain place for a reason, but it’s really a question of balance and improvisation.

What was the recording experience like?

RONDEAU: The mics show you things in the music that you didn’t suspect. It keeps pushing the level you’re striving for. Making you think about things you wouldn’t acknowledge.

DUNFORD: In the beginning, you’re a little self-conscious because there are mics, and you want to do a good job. And then you just keep on playing so much, and you get to that zone when you don’t think things, and suddenly it’s the middle of the night and — “Let’s play it again!”

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

June 11, 2020

Art that might make you want to go to LaGuardia

Xavier Hufkens announces the representation of Lynda Benglis

Stolen Banksy work from door of Paris Bataclan found in Italy

A museum canceled a show about police brutality. Now it has regrets.

Théo van Rysselberghe to highlight ONE: a Global Sale of the 20th Century

Nationalmuseum acquires magnificent urn made at the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory

Solving the mystery of what became of JFK's other patrol boat

Bloodsuckers exhibition named Overall Winner at AAM Excellence in Exhibition Awards

New York Philharmonic cancels fall season

Statue of Leopold II, Belgian king who brutalized Congo, is removed in Antwerp

Friday June 12th: Reopening of Centre Pompidou-Metz, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year

Deana Lawson now represented by David Kordansky Gallery

Cynthia Navaretta, art critic, curator, publisher, art collector, architectural engineer dies at age 97

19th-century French commode leads Heritage Fine Furniture & Decorative Arts Auction above $1.3 million

Novel gives voice to physically challenged children whose animal familiars help them to survive

The Museum of Craft and Design announces Design by Distance, a virtual exhibition

Lyman Allyn Art Museum Readies Galleries to reopen on June 30 for a summer of free admission

The Michener Art Museum board of trustees names Kate Quinn as new Executive Director

Rare items signed by many of history's brightest luminaries to be offered at auction

As Italy reopens, tour guides plead for more aid, and tourists

The Dalí will reopen to the public July 1 with new hours and safety procedures

Poets criticize Poetry Foundation's statement on Black Lives Matter

The gentle, brilliant bros of French baroque music

The most effective guide on how to structure your academic paper

Traumatic Brain injuries from Motorycle Crash

Benefits of MOT testing and why it is important?

A guide to casino gaming




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful