Christophe Coin, Christophe Rousset, Vittorio Ghielmi, Pascal Monteilhet - Marin Marais - Suitte d'un gout etranger (1998)

French composers of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries delighted in adorning their pieces with foreign, in particular, Italian, elements, often calling attention to them in the titles. Among the most subtle transalpine stylists was Francois Couperin, who was refining the ‘French style’ and publishing his legacy in the form of harpsichord and chamber music. His contemporary, Marin Marais, contributed his own subtle essay in the exotic, a “Suitte d’un gout etranger” published in his Fourth Book of Pieces de une et a trois viole (1717), nearly 30 years after his First Book (the epitome of French viol playing) had appeared.

In order to bring the subtleties of music intended to be perceived as in a gout etranger to life, a performer must first master the traditional French baroque style. Christophe Coin has done that, both technically and musically, to a degree matched by no other viol player of today. He is able to bend the music endlessly to his will as only a master can do, producing an individual interpretation while illuminating the music on its own terms. This recording encompasses an astonishing range of moods and effects: he sings (“Fetes champetres”), he swaggers (“La fleselle”), he soars (“Caprice”). He revels in the resonance of Marais’s exquisite chordal writing (“Sarabande” and “Muzette”) and takes time when it suits the music – always just the right amount (too much would sap the music, too little would betray a lack of sensibilite and too frequent would render his performances cliched). He can be rhetorical (“Fetes champetres”) but is equally at home with the saucy “Tartarine”. He is a virtuoso of the first rank (amply in evidence in the “Tourbillon” and the marathon “Labyrinthe”), paying attention to the smallest detail – the syncopations of the allemandes (“L’asmatique” and “La singuliere”), the echoes in the majestic “Marche tartate” and the graceful “Arabesque”. He conjures visions in the Rameau-esque “Minaudiere” and the “Allemande la superbe”.

Central to French viol playing is mastery of the melancholy; so much of the repertory is in minor keys and within the range of the human voice. For performers it is the most revealing of all musical ‘affects’ and Coin has the character and conviction never to allow it to degenerate into self-indulgence. In his hands such pieces as the rondeaux popularized in the film, Tous les matins du monde (“L’arabesque”, “Le reveuse” and “Le badinage”), and “Le bijou” are elegant and poetic.

With a fine team of accompanists, Christophe Rousset (always moulding his playing to Coin’s bow strokes, notably in the “Allemande la bizare”), Vittorio Ghielmi (whose shuddering low notes in the “Rondeau le bijou” are especially effective) and Pascal Monteilhet (whose guitar playing contributes so much to the “Sarabande”), Coin provides entertainment listeners will want to revisit again and again, and sets new standards for viol players today. -- Gramophone