Bousset: Airs serieux Le Jardin Secret feat. Elizabeth Dobbin

• 1 O toy, qui presides aux chants 04:00
• 2 En amour une chansonnette 02:16
• 3 Heureux qui de ses jours 02:13
• 4 Importune raison 02:03
• 5 Nuit charmante 02:53
• 6 Tu crains detre avec moi seulette 02:59
• 7 Helas faible raison, questes vous devenue 03:12
• 8 Iris, vous etes jeune et belle 01:30
• 9 Dans la saison nouvelle 02:00
• 10 Symphonie choisie 01:43
• 11 Cest dans ces lieux quon voit lamour se plaire 01:26
• 12 Jaime a revoir ces bois et ces ruisseaux 04:14
• 13 Par hazard sur la fougere 03:58
• 14 Jaime Sylvie 01:29
• 15 Chers temoins dun amour trop fidelle et trop tendre 02:39
• 16 Charmante nuit 05:02
• 17 De toutes les saisons, lhiver sest rendu maitre 03:30
• 18 Aimer Iris 03:47
• 19 Sombre forest 03:19
• 20 Jay quitte vos beaux yeux sans quitte mon amour 02:27
• Total Runtime 56:40

Info for Bousset: Airs serieux

In 1724, Sébastien de Brossard hailed Jean-Baptiste Drouard de Bousset as ‘indisputably the best of our composer-authors’. Although, at the beginning of the 18th century, the Master of Music at the Académies des Sciences et des Inscriptions imposed himself as the unquestionable leader of the genre, his 875 airs sérieux are little known nowadays and deserve to be brought back into the light. Such is the desire of Elizabeth Dobbin and the ensemble Le Jardin Secret, who recreate with artistry and intelligence the ‘noble, pleasant and natural’ songs of the composer, described by Titon du Tillet in his Parnasse françois (1732). Reflecting the traditions of the 17th and 18th centuries, the musicians have included improvised passages in their performance of these airs and, in particular, chosen to accompany the voice with two theorbos and viola da gamba, instruments that Bousset owned when he died.

Le Jardin Secret:
Elizabeth Dobbin, soprano
Mike Fentross, baroque guitar, theorbo
Jadran Duncumb, theorbo
Romina Lischka, treble viol, bass viol
Additional musicians:
Nicholas Milne, treble viol, bass viol (on tracks 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20)
Takeshi Sudo, bass viol (on tracks 3, 9, 10, 19, 20)

Le Jardin Secret
The ensemble Le Jardin Secret presents the wonderful treasure of Baroque solo vocal literature accompanied by the full colour and beauty of original continuo and obligato instruments. With soprano Elizabeth Dobbin, the ensemble performs a wide range of 17th and 18th century repertoire with dedicated attention to its historical context and to the possibilities of creative continuo playing and improvisation.

The music is intimate and highly expressive exploiting the powerful and contrasting affects of the poetry to which it is set, welcoming the listener into the most secret places of the heart. Le Jardin Secret (in French a metaphor for the heart) is a place of sensual beauty and delight, of mystery and contemplation, of lament, grief and suffer- ing, of amusement and assignation. In 2007, the ensemble won both the first prize and the audience prize in the Early Music Network International Young Artists’ Competition in York, England.

The ensemble performs extensively across Europe both for concert and radio. Recent highlights have included a performance at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Luf- thansa Baroque Festival in London and a live broadcast for the BBC.

It is the aim of the ensemble to bring alive the emotive energy of the music, opening the door to the aesthetic world of the Baroque in all its beguiling beauty.

Booklet for Bousset: Airs serieux