The ensemble Les Surprises, founded in 2010 by viol player Juliette Guignard and organist/harpsichordist Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, won the 'Révélation musicale' award in 2014, a first for a baroque ensemble.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The album's artistic director, Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, aimed to recreate a festive Venetian evening, mingling sacred and profane, intimate and grandiose elements.
Composition History
The album highlights the stylistic connections between Claudio Monteverdi and his successors as master of chapel in Venice, such as Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Antonio Lotti.
Interpretation
The ensemble Les Surprises performs this music with a single voice or instrument per part, which provides precision and flexibility, enhancing the text's impact.
Compositional Technique
During this period, composers like Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, and Tarquinio Merula easily transitioned between writing motets, operas, and madrigals, often adapting musical material by changing texts.
Composer Biography
Alessandro Grandi, a friend and deputy of Claudio Monteverdi at San Marco, was a prolific composer of motets and madrigals and one of the first to use the term 'cantata'.
Composer Biography
Giovanni Battista Fontana, a major 17th-century instrumental composer, was such a renowned violinist that he was known as 'dal Violino'.
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