Méditation. Les quatre saisons du luth (Simone Vallerotonda)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Arcana
Magazine Review Date: 04/2022
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 57
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: A496
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Prélude |
Charles Mouton, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
La belle Espagnole, Movement: Chaconne |
Charles Mouton, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Tombeau Mazarin, Movement: Allemande |
Robert de Visée, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
La belle Florentine, Movement: Sarabande |
Charles Mouton, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
La mélancolique, Movement: Courante de Gaultier |
Charles Mouton, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
La volage, Movement: Passacaille |
Charles Mouton, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
La comete, Movement: Chaconne |
Jacques Gallot, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Rondeau |
Pierre Dubut le fils, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
(Les) Indes galantes, Movement: Air pour les esclaves Africains |
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Courante |
Robert de Visée, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Allemande |
Robert de Visée, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
L’altesse royale |
Jacques Gallot, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Pièces de clavecin, Movement: Les tendres plaintes |
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Canaries ou gigue |
Valentin Strobel, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
(La) Muzette de M. Forqueray, Movement: Rondeau |
Robert de Visée, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Tombeau de Vieux Gallot, Movement: Allemande |
Robert de Visée, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
La cicogne, Movement: Courante |
Jacques Gallot, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Les castagnettes, Movement: Canaries |
Jacques Gallot, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
My Mistress is Pretty, Movement: Branle de Mantoue |
Charles Mouton, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Livres de clavecin, Book 2, Movement: 6th Ordre (B flat) |
François Couperin, Composer
Simone Vallerotonda, Lute |
Author: William Yeoman
Italian lutenist Simone Vallerotonda, who admits philosophy ‘has been his passion and salvation’, shares with fellow gut-pluckers such as Lukas Henning a penchant for extramusical esoterica. In Henning’s case it is the Tarot; in Vallerotonda’s, ‘the four humours of Hippocrates, as developed in 17th-century philosophical thought’.
Vallerotonda’s recital thus comprises four suites, drawing on the rarefied repertoire of 17th-century French lute music, assembled by him according to ‘humour, season, colour and key’. A minimalist Quattro stagioni, if you like, yet every bit as compelling as Vivaldi’s by virtue of the oddness, to our ears, of the music; of the titles of some of the pieces; of Vallerotonda’s juxtapositions; and, not least, of his extraordinary playing.
Each suite is a variation on the at-this period-yet-to-be-codified prelude-allemande-courante-sarabande-chaconne pattern. Their expressive centres are the allemandes, two of which are tombeaux, both by the best-represented composer-lutenist on the recording, Robert de Visée. There are also denser interventions, two in new arrangements, by clavecinistes François Couperin and Rameau. Most of the pieces are, however, ‘often made up of very few notes’, thus leaving plenty of room for Vallerotonda’s, and the listener’s, metaphysical ruminations.
This is evident from the outset, with Winter’s Prélude, by Charles Mouton: spacious and unmeasured; in Vallerotonda’s hands more provocation than invitation. The suite’s concluding chaconne, Jacques Gallot’s La comete, is strange, modern, oneiric. Summer brings languid strumming and garlands of ornament such as is found in Germain Pinel’s L’enchantement; Autumn’s wistfulness is exemplified by Gallot’s L’altesse royale; Spring’s hopes tempered by de Visée’s Tombeau du vieux Gallot.
All of which Vallerotonda renders as music heard like snatches of conversation in a darkened corridor, which is the past. This is imaginative, thoughtful music-making, which asks a lot of the listener but repays their efforts a hundredfold.
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