Rameau: Les Surprises de l'Amour, transcriptions de Monsieur Hesse

Featuring

Jonathan Dunford
Pierre Trocellier
Sylvia Abramowicz
Monique Zanetti
Stephan MacLeod
Ensemble À Deux Violes Esgales

Jean-Philippe Rameau

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Composition History

Rameau's opéra-ballet Les Surprises de l'Amour was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and premiered in 1748 at Versailles.

Compositional Technique

Rameau's opéra-ballet Les Surprises de l'Amour was highly flexible, allowing acts (called 'entrées') to be added or removed to suit different performances and audiences.

Historical Context

At the premiere of Les Surprises de l'Amour, Madame de Pompadour herself performed the roles of Venus and Urania, while King Louis XV openly yawned, preferring a comedy.

Cultural Impact

After about sixty performances, Rameau's Les Surprises de l'Amour disappeared from the stage forever, with the exception of the act 'Anacréon,' which had an additional twenty-eight performances.

Composition History

The version of Les Surprises de l'Amour on this album is a chamber arrangement for two viols by Ludwig Christian Hesse, a German composer and virtuoso gambist, discovered in 2007.

Instruments

The recording features a 17th-century harpsichord, restored in Lyon in 1748 by Joseph Collesse, and a 1741 Salomon bass viol, restored by Judith Kraft.