Delalande Sinfonie Reyne Box-Set

He came sooner than expected...Great!!!

As the liner notes, by conductor Hugo Reyne himself, aptly point out, Delalande's (or De Lalande as it is sometimes spellt) Symphonies for the King's Suppers is both one of the most famous compositions of the French baroque era, and one of the most unknown ones. When the early pioneers, from Roger Désormière in 1946, still in the 78s era, on Oiseau Lyre OL 141-142 (reissued by Dante, Alceste * Cadmus et Hermione * Symphony) to Jean-François Paillard for Erato (successive recordings in 1957, 1963 and 1984, all for Erato, the latter on Delalande - Simphonies Pour Les Soupers Du Roy or Delalande: Concert de Trompettes / Trois Caprices) recorded selections from the Symphonies, they were met with great popular success. Other such early pioneers include Roland Douatte (in 1954 on Vogue Contrepoint MC 20.086, then in 1963 on Critere SCRD 5177, later reissued on Musidisc RC 800), Pierre Colombo with the Lamoureux Orchestra in 1954 on L'Oiseau Lyre (French edition 7" les Disques de l'Oiselet DO-LD-29, 12" DO 17029, English Edition OL 50106), Louis de Froment in 1957 again for L'Oiseau Lyre, with a brilliant roster of French soloists including Maurice André, Roger Delmotte, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Claude Maisonneuve, Pierre Pierlot, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, and Pierre Cochereau at the organ (Fench edition OL-LD 163, English edition OL 50152, later reissued on OLS 170), Bernard Wahl first in 1960 on Disques Pop CMB-60042-30 (reissued on Mode diques MDINT 9189), then in 1962 for Club Français du Disque CFD 294 (later reissue on Musidisc RC 715), Paul Kuentz on Archiv SAPM 198 333 in 1964, and Günter Kehr on Vox/Candide in 1975.

But those selections barely scratched the surface. Désormière's selection ran 12 minutes and Colombo reproduced the same program. The selections of Douatte and Wahl were only a part of their respective program, paired with pieces by other French composers of the era. Paillard's first recording in 1957 made up one side of a 10" LP and ran 14 minutes, and Paul Kuentz' selections on Archiv filled only one LP side, the other being devoted to symphonies of Mouret, while De Froment's Symphonies mated other instrumental pieces of Delalande. So the first full-LP-timed selection was the second recording of Paillard, in 1963, followed by Günter Kehr in 1975 and Paillard again in 1984: and that was still a short measure, compared to the complete music of Delalande's Symphonies.

That relative scarcity derives from the fact no complete edition was ever published, or at least had not been when Reyne made his recording in 1990 (but I haven't found trace of a publication since, although Gallica, the online service of Bibliothèque Nationale de France, has made available online facsimiles of the manuscript sources), on the occasion of the tri-centenial of Delalande's appointment as superintendent of the King's Chamber Music. So Reyne went to the sources, the manuscripts of Philidor (who had been the librarian of Louis 14, in charge of compiling all the music played at the court since the Renaissance) kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale, and observed that there were two successive versions of the Symphonies, the first made for Louis 14 in 1703 (and augmented in 1713), comprised of 185 numbers arranged in 12 suites, and a later one, made for Louis 15 in 1727 and 1745, with around 300 numbers arranged in 18 suites, in which the earlier pieces were now presented in reshuffled order, and augmented of over one hundred new ones excerpted from various ballets and Divertissements of Delalande. It is the 1745 publication that has been made available online by Gallica and is downloadable from the International Music Scores Library Project (on Lalande's page, click on the tab "collections"), and the table of contents of the two Philidor volumes allow to re-establish the correspondence. For instance, the 23 numbers of the "new" first Suite combined just three numbers (including the Overture) from the orignal first Suite, and the others from the original 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th and from various ballets. Now, to "reconstruct" the original First Suite, you need to jump from the "new" suites No. 1, 4, 10 and 14. Reyne opted for the earlier version, based on the fact that the sources for the later version date from after Delalande's death in 1726 and include pieces that were not part of the original Symphonies.

So this may not be exactlty the "complete" Symphonies - because, on the one hand, it isn't clear what exactly the "complete" symphonies are, and on the other hand because Reyne also includes, as an opener, five tracks of a "concert of trumpets" which was made part, in the 1745 publication, of the "new" 4th Suite, but didn't originally belong to the Symphonies, having been composed for the "festes" on the canal of the Versailles palace. Also, athough I haven't searched systematically, I've also noted the apparent omission of some numbers belonging to the original 8th Suite, carried over into the new 3rd Suite, and the subtitution of three numbers (CD 3 tracks 27, 28 and 31) that are not part of the original 8th Suite as indicated in the online manuscript. A quick look on the manuscripts' table of content and correspondence makes me think that there are other omissions. But, with 5 hours of Symphonies (each of the four discs is filled up to 75 minutes), it is the best thing we've had so far.

All the earlier recordings were apparently based on the later manuscripts, so the correspondance is not always immediate, but anyway, because of its completeness, and because it is the only version on period instruments, Reyne's version more or less invalidates them all. Another factor is that the Philidor manuscripts come in the form of two- or three-part scores only, with hardly any indication of instrumentation (except when it is indicated "trio pour hautbois" and the like), so it falls on each interpreter to offer his own instrumentation: no edition then is entirely comparable to the other ones. Reyne doesn't conceal the fact that much of what he did is educated, and maybe even, sometimes, speculative guess.

Not that it bothers me: as, I think, most listeners, I don't approach music primarily as a historian ("is this exactly how it was played at the suppers of the Sun-King?"), but as a music lover seeking enjoyment. So this may not be exactly what the succesive king Louis heard at their supper, and who knows it may be a total distortion of what they actually heard. Well, if so - their loss. The reconstruction is expertly done and hugely enjoyable, it conveys both the illusion that this IS what the kings might have heard at their supper, and much pleasure at hearing it today. The music is great, maybe not as lush and learned as the orchestral music of Rameau, but, despite the five hours of it, always entertaining and varied, making the Symphonies the French equivalent of Telemann or even Handel. Among the "educated" or even "speculative" guesses of Reyne, there is his very free addition of percussion instruments, castagnets, bells, xylophone, tambourine, and even, in the two "Arias of the Siamese" of the 9th Suite, various Thai percussions including gongs and rattles (which, according to Reyne, were known in France at the time - strangely, the English translation omits that phrase), which give much rhythm, color and dynamism to the pieces concerned. Reyne also interpreted two of the "Loure", from the 3rd (CD 1 track 39) and 8th Suites (CD 3 track 26) not as meaning, as the other Loures from the Symphonies, a dance in Spanish character, but as refering to the bagpipe (from the latin "lura", bag), so he plays them "in a rustic manner" (à la paysanne), with bagpipe (the musette de cour was indeed an instrument much in vogue at the court in the age of Louis 15): se non è vero, e ben trovato. In a few cases, where the Symphonies were derived from sung arias, in which Delalande substituted an instrument to the voice, Reyne has reverted to the original aria (sung by soprano Sylviane Pitour). One such cases is the Trio "of the birds", in the 11th Suite (CD IV track 32), where the score indicates a "German flute" and, in place of the voice, oboe. But to that, Reyne has also added duck calls ("A duck call may refer to either the process by which a hunter lures waterfowl, or the actual tool which he or she uses to do so. Early duck call tools were basic woodwind instruments" - Wikipedia). Likewise, the so-called "Symphonie du Marais", included in the 7th Suite (CD III track 18) is played, literally, as a symphony of ducks, although this may be a spoof from Reyne (whose ensemble is precisely called La Simphonie du Marais): that number does NOT appear in the online Philidor manuscripts or in its table of contents and correspondence. On the other hand, the Sarabande from the 6th Suite, CD III track 4, is played by lute only - very meditative and restul, and very short too. And then, there is also Reyne's art of phrasing and ornamentation, inspired by what is known and understood today of period practice, never enslaved to the letter of the scores.

Harmonia Mundi had let this collection lapse from its catalogue, and for years it was offered on the marketplace for very steep prices (although the 40 demanded for it now by the best offerer on the set's other entry, Delalande: Symphonies Pour Les Souper Du Roy (Harmonia Mundi) (4-Disc Set), doesn't seem entirey excessive). The label also issued single-CD selections, 27 numbers out of the set's 158 on Delalande: Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roy (Selections), reissued budget on Delalande: Symphonies Pour Les Soupers Du Roy (there was even the 5th Suite alone on a short-timed CD, Symphony 5 for the King's Supper) which was better than nothing, but still very frustrating. Now here's the good news: you don't need to settle for less anymore: the reissue of the complete collection is announced for August, Delalande Complete Symphonies, and at budget price.

As the liner notes, by conductor Hugo Reyne himself, aptly point out, Delalande's (or De Lalande as it is sometimes spellt) Symphonies for the King's Suppers is both one of the most famous compositions of the French baroque era, and one of the most unknown ones. When the early pioneers, from Roger Désormière in 1946, still in the 78s era, on Oiseau Lyre OL 141-142 (reissued by Dante, Alceste · Cadmus et Hermione · Symphony) to Jean-François Paillard for Erato (successive recordings in 1957, 1963 and 1984, all for Erato, the latter on Delalande - Simphonies Pour Les Soupers Du Roy or Delalande: Concert de Trompettes / Trois Caprices) recorded selections from the Symphonies, they were met with great popular success. Other such early pioneers include Roland Douatte (in 1954 on Vogue Contrepoint MC 20.086, then in 1963 on Critere SCRD 5177, later reissued on Musidisc RC 800), Pierre Colombo with the Lamoureux Orchestra in 1954 on L'Oiseau Lyre (French edition 7" les Disques de l'Oiselet DO-LD-29, 12" DO 17029, English Edition OL 50106), Louis de Froment in 1957 again for L'Oiseau Lyre, with a brilliant roster of French soloists including Maurice André, Roger Delmotte, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Claude Maisonneuve, Pierre Pierlot, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, and Pierre Cochereau at the organ (Fench edition OL-LD 163, English edition OL 50152, later reissued on OLS 170), Bernard Wahl first in 1960 on Disques Pop CMB-60042-30 (reissued on Mode diques MDINT 9189), then in 1962 for Club Français du Disque CFD 294 (later reissue on Musidisc RC 715), Paul Kuentz on Archiv SAPM 198 333 in 1964, and Günter Kehr on Vox/Candide in 1975.

But those selections barely scratched the surface. Désormière's selection ran 12 minutes and Colombo reproduced the same program. The selections of Douatte and Wahl were only a part of their respective program, paired with pieces by other French composers of the era. Paillard's first recording in 1957 made up one side of a 10" LP and ran 14 minutes, and Paul Kuentz' selections on Archiv filled only one LP side, the other being devoted to symphonies of Mouret, while De Froment's Symphonies mated other instrumental pieces of Delalande. So the first full-LP-timed selection was the second recording of Paillard, in 1963, followed by Günter Kehr in 1975 and Paillard again in 1984: and that was still a short measure, compared to the complete music of Delalande's Symphonies.

That relative scarcity derives from the fact no complete edition was ever published, or at least had not been when Reyne made his recording in 1990 (but I haven't found trace of a publication since, although Gallica, the online service of Bibliothèque Nationale de France, has made available online facsimiles of the manuscript sources), on the occasion of the tri-centenial of Delalande's appointment as superintendent of the King's Chamber Music. So Reyne went to the sources, the manuscripts of Philidor (who had been the librarian of Louis 14, in charge of compiling all the music played at the court since the Renaissance) kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale, and observed that there were two successive versions of the Symphonies, the first made for Louis 14 in 1703 (and augmented in 1713), comprised of 185 numbers arranged in 12 suites, and a later one, made for Louis 15 in 1727 and 1745, with around 300 numbers arranged in 18 suites, in which the earlier pieces were now presented in reshuffled order, and augmented of over one hundred new ones excerpted from various ballets and Divertissements of Delalande. It is the 1745 publication that has been made available online by Gallica and is downloadable from the International Music Scores Library Project (on Lalande's page, click on the tab "collections"), and the table of contents of the two Philidor volumes allow to re-establish the correspondence. For instance, the 23 numbers of the "new" first Suite combined just three numbers (including the Overture) from the orignal first Suite, and the others from the original 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th and from various ballets. Now, to "reconstruct" the original First Suite, you need to jump from the "new" suites No. 1, 4, 10 and 14. Reyne opted for the earlier version, based on the fact that the sources for the later version date from after Delalande's death in 1726 and include pieces that were not part of the original Symphonies.

So this may not be exactlty the "complete" Symphonies - because, on the one hand, it isn't clear what exactly the "complete" symphonies are, and on the other hand because Reyne also includes, as an opener, five tracks of a "concert of trumpets" which was made part, in the 1745 publication, of the "new" 4th Suite, but didn't originally belong to the Symphonies, having been composed for the "festes" on the canal of the Versailles palace. Also, athough I haven't searched systematically, I've also noted the apparent omission of some numbers belonging to the original 8th Suite, carried over into the new 3rd Suite, and the subtitution of three numbers (CD 3 tracks 27, 28 and 31) that are not part of the original 8th Suite as indicated in the online manuscript. A quick look on the manuscripts' table of content and correspondence makes me think that there are other omissions. But, with 5 hours of Symphonies (each of the four discs is filled up to 75 minutes), it is the best thing we've had so far.

All the earlier recordings were apparently based on the later manuscripts, so the correspondance is not always immediate, but anyway, because of its completeness, and because it is the only version on period instruments, Reyne's version more or less invalidates them all. Another factor is that the Philidor manuscripts come in the form of two- or three-part scores only, with hardly any indication of instrumentation (except when it is indicated "trio pour hautbois" and the like), so it falls on each interpreter to offer his own instrumentation: no edition then is entirely comparable to the other ones. Reyne doesn't conceal the fact that much of what he did is educated, and maybe even, sometimes, speculative guess.

Not that it bothers me: as, I think, most listeners, I don't approach music primarily as a historian ("is this exactly how it was played at the suppers of the Sun-King?"), but as a music lover seeking enjoyment. So this may not be exactly what the successive king Louis heard at their supper, and who knows it may be a total distortion of what they actually heard. Well, if so - their loss. The reconstruction is expertly done and hugely enjoyable, it conveys both the illusion that this IS what the kings might have heard at their supper, and much pleasure at hearing it today. The music is great, maybe not as lush and learned as the orchestral music of Rameau, but, despite the five hours of it, always entertaining and varied, making the Symphonies the French equivalent of Telemann or even Handel. Among the "educated" or even "speculative" guesses of Reyne, there is his very free addition of percussion instruments, castagnets, bells, xylophone, tambourine, and even, in the two "Arias of the Siamese" of the 9th Suite, various Thai percussions including gongs and rattles (which, according to Reyne, were known in France at the time - strangely, the English translation omits that phrase), which give much rhythm, color and dynamism to the pieces concerned. Reyne also interpreted two of the "Loure", from the 3rd (CD 1 track 39) and 8th Suites (CD 3 track 26) not as meaning, as the other Loures from the Symphonies, a dance in Spanish character, but as refering to the bagpipe (from the latin "lura", bag), so he plays them "in a rustic manner" (à la paysanne), with bagpipe (the musette de cour was indeed an instrument much in vogue at the court in the age of Louis 15): "se non è vero, e ben trovato". In a few cases, where the Symphonies were derived from sung arias, in which Delalande substituted an instrument to the voice, Reyne has reverted to the original aria (sung by soprano Sylviane Pitour). One such cases is the Trio "of the birds", in the 11th Suite (CD IV track 32), where the score indicates a "German flute" and, in place of the voice, oboe. But to that, Reyne has also added duck calls ("A duck call may refer to either the process by which a hunter lures waterfowl, or the actual tool which he or she uses to do so. Early duck call tools were basic woodwind instruments" - Wikipedia). Likewise, the so-called "Symphonie du Marais", included in the 7th Suite (CD III track 18) is played, literally, as a symphony of ducks, although this may be a spoof from Reyne (whose ensemble is precisely called La Simphonie du Marais): that number does NOT appear in the online Philidor manuscripts or in its table of contents and correspondence. On the other hand, the Sarabande from the 6th Suite, CD III track 4, is played by lute only - very meditative and restul, and very short too. And then, there is also Reyne's art of phrasing and ornamentation, inspired by what is known and understood today of period practice, never enslaved to the letter of the scores.

This collection was originally published on Delalande: Symphonies Pour Les Souper Du Roy (Harmonia Mundi) (4-Disc Set), but Harmonia Mundi had let it lapse from its catalogue, and for years it was offered on the marketplace for very steep prices. The label also issued single-CD selections, 27 numbers out of the set's 158 on Delalande: Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roy (Selections), reissued budget on Delalande: Symphonies Pour Les Soupers Du Roy (there was even the 5th Suite alone on a short-timed CD, Symphony 5 for the King's Supper) which was better than nothing, but still very frustrating. It's great to have it back, and at budget price.

Michel-Richard de Lalande, otherwise known as Delalande, was Master of the King's Music at the court of Louis XIV, and the king's most favoured composer after the death of Lully. Louis XIV liked, and could afford, to have music for all kinds of occasion, including sacred, secular and operatic, and some of Delalande's finest works are the sacred motets of which, like his great predecessor, he was a master.

In a different category, however, are the 185 pieces composed to be played, as the title indicates, to accompany the king's suppers. They include a wide variety of forms and instruments, and were arranged into twelve suites. The present four-disc set was the first complete recording of all the Symphonies composed for Louis XIV; it was originally issued in 1990 and is now re-issued at a very handy price. Most of the suites begin with an Ouverture, and the subsequent movements include many short dance pieces, the more substantial forms of Chaconne and Passacaille, a few Caprices and the occasional Air. The latter are restored for this recording to their original version of airs for soprano.

Instrumentation is varied, ranging from trumpets and percussion in the ceremonial, martial or hunt-style pieces to the more gentle, subtle tones of woodwind and strings and continuo where appropriate. There's a great variety of mood, pace and texture here, with Hugo Reyne's capable period-instrument band playing in excellent and spirited style throughout. The use of percussion provides further variety and colour in places, with some especially fine work on castanets to liven things up.

And it does need livening up, for really this is mostly rather shallow music.