Long ago, I realized that there is more music in any genre than any one person will ever hear in a lifetime. New discoveries came for me, and I’m sure most in the audience, in a program of French Baroque music presented by the ensemble Les Délices on the Early Music Now series at UW-Milwaukee’s Zelazo Center Saturday evening.
Based in Cleveland, Les Délices (translated as “The Delicacies”) specializes in exploring long-forgotten yet still potent music. This concert was based on themes related to Homer’s Odyssey, its protagonist Ulysses and his faithful wife Penelope, who waited for his return for 20 years. Soprano Clara Rottsolk brought to vivid life excerpts from Ulysse by Jean-Féry Rebel, with Debra Nagy on baroque oboe, Julie Andrijeski on violin, Steuart Pincombe on viola da gamba, and Mark Edwards on harpsichord.
Rottsolk is an extraordinary singer and vocal actress, delivering very difficult music with lucidity, colorful diction and expression. Each of the sections from Rebel’s Ulysse was intriguing, with intricate, stylish ornamentation liberally added by the singer and players. Rottsolk was just as impressive in Les Sirènes by Thomas-Louis Bourgeois, which persuasively tells of the sirens’ attempt at dangerous seduction, as well as Minerva guiding Ulysses to resist.
Music surviving by a woman composer from this period is rare. Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was heard in the cantata Le Sommeil d’Ulisse, which retells Neptune’s attempt to destroy Ulysses’ ship in a storm (wonderful, harrowing music), Minerva’s rescue and Ulysses’ retreat to a quiet island. This featured exciting, fiery singing and playing at times, while other sections were a restful balm.
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Nagy plays with the expressive fluidity of a singer. The ensemble playing was crisp throughout, with attention to every note and phrase. The four players created a lovely blend of sound in the sonata L’Astrée by François Couperin. In Rebel’s La Fidelle Andrijeski, Pincombe and Edwards created dramatic contrasts, from soulful slow music to blazing fury.
I had not only never heard music by Jean-Féry Rebel, I had simply never heard of him. This compelling program made me very curious to discover more.
