Pièces en solitude / Musique française baroque pour viole de gambe

Description

Violist Caroline Nicolas makes her solo recording debut with compositions by leading figures of the French Baroque: Marin Marais, Antoine Forqueray, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe and Le Sieur de Machy. Based in New York, Caroline Nicolas is an artist to watch closely: a captivating performer and “one of the finest viol players today” (Gotham Early Music Scene). Her career is on the rise, and she has performed with ensembles such as The English Concert, Kammerorchester Basel and Philharmonia Baroque, and collaborated with renowned musicians including Jordi Savall, William Christie and Kristian Bezuidenhout. For her first solo album, Caroline Nicolas showcases the great classics of the viola da gamba repertoire from the instrument’s emblematic period in France: the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Viola da gamba pieces were essential to French instrumental Baroque, and Caroline’s program opens with selections by the master of the genre, Marin Marais. To create contrast, Caroline pairs this with the first Suite by the iconoclastic Antoine Forqueray and, in between, offers two appetizers: a complex Chaconne by Marais’s teacher, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, and a Prelude by the pedagogue Le Sieur de Machy. True to the nuance and relative restraint of French viola da gamba music, Caroline is accompanied only by the theorbo, whose complementary timbre reflects the repertoire’s aesthetic.