Le Manuscrit retrouvé

Description

Although Marin Marais published nearly six hundred pieces for viola da gamba during his lifetime, more than forty remain unpublished. Collected in the Panmure manuscripts, these pieces are preserved at the National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh). The existing manuscripts do not include a bass part: it has likely been lost, as almost all known pieces by Marais to date have one, most often written separately. "With my long-time collaborator Guillaume Haldenwang, we became aware of the existence of these unpublished suites about three years ago, and the project to record them has not left us since. It is therefore particularly exciting to be able to approach new pieces by this great composer, which are currently extremely rarely performed. The absence of a bass part and consequently the need to reconstruct it allows us to appropriate this music in a very particular way, bringing our personal touch and sensitivity, while of course still drawing inspiration from the existing continuo lines of Marais. The rewriting of the bass lines for these unpublished pieces by Marais allowed us to win the F.J. Aumann prize at the International Biber Competition (Austria) in 2019. This prize rewards new discoveries in early music and the most innovative interpretations of it every two years."