The Baroque period was characterised by dramatic, grandiose structures, in the fine arts as well as in music. An array of exuberant expression with curved, sinuous lines took over all the arts. This was the starting point for this recording by mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Héloïse Gaillard at the head of her ensemble Amarillis.
This "road movie" into the land of madness invites us to discover its different faces through some of the composers of the time. From the famous theme of the "Folies d'Espagne" used by Reinhard Keiser in his comic opera Jodelet to the Gavotte en rondeau from Carnaval et La Folie, a lyrical comedy by André Cardinal Destouches, there’s a whole itinerary that inscribes madness in her role as a seductress, charmed and triumphant in André Campra's Fêtes vénitiennes, or of love madness through the character of Sémélé set to music by Destouches and Marin Marais, without forgetting a detour into perfidious Albion with Purcell and Eccles.
Love obviously comes with jealousy, one of the recurring themes of tragedy and consequently of opera. Instrumental music is not forgotten in this recording with a Concerto a 7 by Heinichen skillfully blending German, French and Italian influences in a European style ahead of its time. This programme invites us to discover a whole array of affects, which seem to have excluded the most terrible madness of all - that of war... © François Hudry/Qobuz