Marais: Suites à deux violes A 2 Violes Esgales

• Marin Marais (1656 –1728): Premier livre de pièces à une et deux violes, Suite à deux violes et basse continue en Sol Majeur
• 1I. Prélude02:11
• 2II. Allemande02:52
• 3III. Courante01:53
• 4IV. Sarabande02:53
• 5V. Gigue02:32
• 6VI. Gavotte en Rondeau02:09
• 7VII. Menuet01:04
• 8VIII. Gavotte00:57
• 9IX. Fantaisie en Echo01:45
• 10X. Chaconne06:20
• Deuxième livre de pièces de violes, Suite à deux violes en Ré Majeur: Les voix humaines (Transcription pour archiluth de Thomas Dunford)
• 11Deuxième livre de pièces de violes, Suite à deux violes en Ré Majeur: Les voix humaines (Transcription pour archiluth de Thomas Dunford)04:08
• Premier livre de pièces à une et deux violes, Suite à deux violes et basse continue en Ré Mineur
• 12I. Prélude04:00
• 13II. Allemande03:36
• 14III. Courante01:46
• 15IV. Sarabande03:50
• 16V. Gigue01:17
• 17VI. Gavotte01:04
• 18VII. Menuet01:08
• 19VIII. Tombeau de Mr. Meliton09:16
• Total Runtime54:41

Info for Marais: Suites à deux violes

In 1978. in Boston, Jonathan Dunford already impassioned by the viola da gamba, receives a microfilm of 5 books of Marin Marais (at that time the editions were not yet available in the USA) while attending the New England Conservatory in Boston. He projected them on the wall of his room and subsequently fell under the spell Marin Marais' first book. Simultaneously across the Atlantic, Sylvia Abramowicz then a student at the the Conservatory of the Hague in the Netherlands, read through this same collection and said that one day she would play this beautiful Sarabande of the d minor suite, for 2 viols, and with a little luck - the ideal partner.

A few years later in 1984, on the Swiss neutral ground in Basel, Jonathan Dunford and Sylvia Abramowicz met at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as Jordi Savall's students.

Jonathan did not speak a word of French, Sylvia's English is limited; so they came together and communicated through the suite in D of Marais' first book. As that neither one nor the other mastered the other ones language, this splendid music allowed them to converse!

Meanwhile a certain lutenist appeared, Thomas Dunford none other than their son, who literally breathes this music and revitalizes this repertoire.

His theorbo will intertwine with the 2 old French viols to enhance this carefully crafted masterpiece, with his well known and inventive accompaniment. Furthermore with the endorsement of Marin Marais, he will propose some transcriptions of Marais' music on the theorbo.

Marais' first book is dedicate to his master the illustrious Lully. This book published the 20th August 1686 has no accompaniment and only in 1689 does Marais publish the basso continuo part. He explains that one can “play it on the harpsichord or the theorbo, the latter is well assorted with the viol”. A 2 Violes Esgales gives us an inspired reading of these beautiful suites of dances taking us back to Versailles and all its glory.

Sylvia Abramowicz, bass viol
Jonathan Dunford, bass viol
Thomas Dunford, theorbo

No biography found.

Booklet for Marais: Suites à deux violes