MARIN MARAIS: PIECES EN TRIO
Marin Marais was the most famous viol player in 17th century France, and his numerous books of suites des violes have earned him a well-deserved place in the Pantheon of music.

Marais published his “Pieces en trio pour les Flutes, Violon & Dessus de Viole” in 1692. This is a set of over 60 pieces for two melody instruments and basso continuo, assembled into six suites. They are mostly dance and free movements with some wonderful variation movements.

Musica Pacifica has put their own spin on these pieces and used a number of different melody instruments: violin, oboe, recorder and voice-flute (a tenor recorder in D). These little changes make for great variety and increased engagement in the listener.  

They have also played around with the suites, creating ten suites out of the original six. Some have been transposed to better suit some instruments (ie. oboe and lute) and to break up the longer suites.

No wonder one fan said, “This is a brilliant recording. I cannot find anything comparable. The ingenuity of the recording lies as much with the choice of instrumentation as with anything else!”

REVIEWS

“…Ravishingly beautiful… warm, expressive, and intensely alive to every nuance, this is playing to ravish the senses….”
– Fanfare Magazine, January/February 1998

 “By turns languorous and affectful and irresistibly sparkling… their elegant, stylish, and thankfully unmannered performances are all one could wish.”
– Goldberg Magazine (Spain), Spring 1998

 “This is the crème de la crème of the West Coast early music scene… a world-class performance: light, relaxed and heartily refreshing.”
– Alte Musik Aktuell (Germany), September 1997

 “Musica Pacifica’s ensemble playing is extremely well-polished and impressively precise – nimble but also graceful, perfectly matched in timbre, and beautifully phrased…[Their] recording of the Pièces en trio is the quintessence of the French Baroque – two and a quarter hours of pure pleasure!”
– Boston Early Music News, May 1998

PERFORMERS:

Judith Linsenberg, recorder
Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque violin
Gonzalo X. Ruiz, baroque oboe
Roy Whelden, viol
Steven Lehning, viol
Michael Eagan, archlute
Byron Schenkman, harpsichord

TRACKS: 

CD 1

Suite in G minor:

Prélude—Fantaisie—Sarabande—Rondeau—Gigue—Menuet—Menuet—Pasacaille

Suite in B flat major:

Symphonie—(Sarabande)—Air—Rondeau—Plainte—Chaconne—Les Contrefaiseurs

Suite in G minor:

Plainte—Gavotte—Sarabande—Air—Petite Passacaille

Suite in B flat major:

Prélude—Caprice—Sarabande Grave—Gavotte—Gigue—La Marianne—Menuet I—Menuet II

Suite in D major:

Prélude—Sarabande—Gavotte en Rondeau-Double—1er Menuet—2e Menuet—Gigue— Symphonie—Fantasie Champestre—Bransle de village—3e Menuet—4e Menuet—Rigaudon— Bransle De Village

CD 2

Suite in C major:

Préude—Sarabande—Loure—Bagatelle—Rondeau—Chaconne

Suite in D minor:

Caprice—Gavotte—Sarabande En Rondeau—Menuet

Suite in C major:

Fantaisie—Sarabande—Gavotte—Menuet—Autre

Suite in C minor:

Prélude (Lentement)—Sarabande grave—Rondeau—Caprice—Gavotte—Menuet—Autre— Fantaisie gay—La Desolée, ou Passacaille Lente

Suite in E minor:

Prélude (Lentement)—Fantaisie—Rondeau—Menuet—Sarabande—Passacaille