Boësset: Je meurs sans mourir (Alpha Collection) Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre

• Anthoine Boësset (1587-1643):
• 1 Una musiqua 04:09
• 2 Départ que le devoir me fait précipiter 05:34
• 3 Ballet des fous et des estropiés de la cervelle: I. Entrée de l'Embabouinée 02:21
• 4 Ballet des fous et des estropiés de la cervelle: II. Entrée des demy-fous 01:26
• 5 Ballet des fous et des estropiés de la cervelle: III. Entrée des Fantasques 02:10
• 6 Ballet des vaillans combattans 01:29
• 7 Récit des Syrènes: Quel soleil 01:56
• 8 Récit d'Amphion et des Syrènes: Quels doux supplices 01:07
• 9 Récit du Dieu des songes: Quelle merveilleuse advanture 02:47
• 10 Récit de Mnémosyne: Quelles beautés, ô mortels 01:40
• 11 Récit du temps: Bien que je vole toutes choses & Aux voleurs, au secours, accourez tous 02:22
• 12 Je meurs sans mourir 02:40
• 13 À la fin cette bergère 03:57
• 14 Dove ne vai, crudele 04:29
• 15 Entrée des laquais 01:54
• 16 Frescos ayres del prado 03:56
• 17 La gran chacona 03:06
• 18 La Pacifique 03:07
• 19 Ô Dieu ! 03:59
• 20 Nos esprits libres et contents 05:29
• Total Runtime 59:38

Info for Boësset: Je meurs sans mourir (Alpha Collection)

This album concluded the first part of our work on the French air de cour, begun in 1999; it is the last of a triptych devoted to the most famous composers in the genre, Estienne Moulinié, Pierre Guédron and Anthoine Boesset. The secular output of the last-named comprises 230 airs – much more than that of the other two, but still very little for a musical career of forty years or so. This is partly explained by Boesset’s perfectionism, as he confirms in the preface to his Eighth Book of 1632: „Yet I take the liberty of presenting these Airs, which are not a great many, coming as they do from one who willingly leaves quantity to others, and who works for the elite rather than the masses.“ (Vincent Dumestre)

Le Poeme Harmonique
Vincent Dumestre, direction

Le Poème Harmonique
Formed in 1998, Le Poème Harmonique is a group of soloists, gathered around artistic director Vincent Dumestre. Its artistic activity, centered on vocal and instrumental music of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is regularly enriched by interaction with other disciplines – this being Le Poème Harmonique's hallmark in Baroque performance.

Actors, dancers, circus artists and puppeteers join its singers and musicians in programmes of chamber works – Le Ballet des Fées, Il Fasolo – and, since 2004, large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully; stage director Benjamin Lazar) and Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat). For operatic performances, such as Lully's Cadmus et Hermione and Cavalli's Egisto (both staged by Benjamin Lazar), Le Poème Harmonique studies the relationship between 'period' and modern stage productions – use of candles for lighting, authentic gestures, painted sets and machinery. The ensemble returns to the sources of early French and Italian music by exploring its relationships with traditional music – the recording entitled Aux Marches du Palais is devoted to traditional French songs. Whilst much of Le Poème Harmonique's activity takes place in the Haute-Normandie Region, the ensemble has presented numerous tours in Europe and appeared in most of the continent's capitals. Highlights of the past seasons include Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Baroque Carnival and Cadmus et Hermione, all of which have been extremely successful, with almost 130 performances. The ensemble's recent stage projects have included the first performances of Pagliardi's Caligula, in September 2011 at the International Puppet Festival in Charleville-Mézières, and of Cavalli's Egisto, in February 2012 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris and subsequently at the Opéra de Rouen Haute-Normandie. In 2013-2014 Le Poème Harmonique presented Purcell's Dido and Æneas at l'Opéra de Rouen as part of its residency at the venue.

The ensemble's recordings for the Alpha label have met with rare public success: Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, the Diapason d'Or, recommendations from Opéra International, Classica, Le Monde de la Musique, a Prelude Classical Award in 2003, the Antonio Vivaldi International Award (Cini Foundation, Venice), the Caecilia Press Prize, and so on.

Booklet for Boësset: Je meurs sans mourir (Alpha Collection)