Perth’s HIP Company joined forces with Sydney’s The Marais Project for a delicious night of French Baroque music in Perth’s most salubrious venue, the Government House Ballroom. HIP Co, responsible for last year’s delightful performance of Eccles’ Semele, is now five years old, while The Marais Project is celebrating its 25th anniversary. They are of course named after French composer Marin Marais (1656-1728), who has achieved some prominence in modern times following the 1991 movie Tous les matins du monde, in which he was played by Gérard Depardieu. The MP has been steadily working its way through Marais’ repertoire in concerts and recordings. This program featured works not only by Marais, but also his teacher Jean de Sainte-Coulombe, and their near contemporaries including Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
We don’t often hear violas da gamba in Perth, and here we were graced with two of them, played by Jenny Eriksson and Krista Low. We also had two lovely sopranos in Susie Bishop and Bonnie de la Hunty, along with Sarah Papadopoulos on violin and the venerable Tommie Andersson on lute and theorbo.
The evening began with Bishop on stage accompanied by a distant lute in Antoine Boësset’s Nos esprites libret et contents, with Andersson gradually progressing from the rear of the auditorium, then joined by de la Hunty, then the violas da gamba and violin, a very sweet and pretty introduction. Another lute song followed by Étienne Moulinié, Objet de plus beau, sung by de la Hunty in her pure but well supported silvery tone, with clear diction and evident feeling, though it might be noted that in all these songs, while they might speak of “tourment” and “mal”, there is little musical shade.
This was followed by excerpts from Sainte-Colombe’s Concerts à 2 violes esgales, a stately sarabande (La mignarde) and a lively gavotte, all played with panache and deft artistry. Then ensued more lute songs alternating with instrumental pieces as we gradually moved forward through time, culminating in Charpentier, Jean-Féry Rebel and the recently recuperated Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
Different members of the ensemble chatted to the audience between items. Krista Low introduced Marais’ Suite for 2 viols and continuo (the latter comprising the theorbo) in three movements, characterising the Menuet as “polite” (it is actually rather angular for a Minuet) and the Gavotte en rondeau as “really cheeky”, which was played with evident enjoyment.