La Barre: Pièces pour la Flûte Traversière avec la Basse Continue (CD review)

The Opus Project. Navona Records NV6414.

By John J. Puccio

The French composer and flutist Michel de la Barre (c. 1675-1745) was one of those musicians who was famous and important at one point in history and then largely forgotten by everyone but classical music connoisseurs after his death. (I noted four recordings devoted to La Barre’s music currently available at Amazon, counting this one.)

La Barre was, according to Encyclopedia.com, a “significant French flutist and composer. He became a musician at the Académie Royale de Musique about 1700, where he was active until 1721. He also played in the Musettes et Hautbois de Poitou (1704–30) and in the royal chamber music. La Barre was held in high esteem as both a flutist and composer. His first book of solo suites for transverse flute and basso continuo was the earliest book ever published of solo pieces for the flute.”

The Opus Project is a small Montreal chamber music ensemble formed in 2020 by Christophe Gauthier and Joanna Marsden. Inspired by the beauty of early musical prints and manuscript sources, the Opus Project explores unsung treasures of the baroque chamber music repertoire by focusing deeply on one collection at a time. The players on the current album are Joanna Marsden, baroque flute; Christophe Gauthier, harpsichord; Margaret Little, viola da gamba; and Daniel Zuluaga, theorbo. Each of them is a virtuoso player, performing as soloists throughout the world, and together they play beautifully.

Unless, of course, you simply hate period instruments and/or historically informed performances, and apparently there are such folks even among music critics. I was noting one such critic just recently who pronounced all HIP performances and all period bands as “abominations.” Understand, I have no objection to anyone’s personal feelings about any kind of music, but such a blanket condemnation coming from a professional music critic seems irresponsible to me. It would be like a movie critic saying that all modern films made in black-and-white were abominations. Such a statement about HIP practices and period bands asserted with such a pompously authoritarian air is recklessly foolish in my opinion. It implies that only modern orchestras utilizing traditional nineteenth and twentieth-century performance standards are acceptable for playing classical music, and anyone daring to play music as the composer might have designed and on instruments he might recognize is wrong, which would be very shortsighted, indeed. Whatever, we are fortunate to have ensembles like The Opus Project, which reject the restrictions of tradition and attempt to play music as composers intended. The Opus Project perform with consummate ease and refinement and regale us with detailed and entertaining presentations. In other words, they do their job and do it well.

The job of The Opus Project is here to perform La Barre’s Premier Livre de Pieces pour la Flute Traversiere, avec la Basse Continue (“First Book of Pieces for the transverse flute, with the basso continuo”), which he wrote in Paris in 1702. It consists of five suites of from six to nine movements each. Because he based most of the movements on popular court dances of the time, the result is some sweetly attractive music, sweetly played.

A booklet note points out that the baroque flute differs from those that came before it by producing a deeper lower register, which Ms. Marsden employs to good effect. The flute sounds mellifluously smooth and honeyed. The melodies flow with an easy grace, always, of course, putting the flute in the lead. Then, too, for those listeners who in general resist the sound of a harpsichord, be assured it is never intrusive. And it’s always fun to hear a theorbo (a baroque, double-necked lute having an extra set of open bass strings). Whenever I have a chance to hear my local period band, the Philharmonia Baroque, I enjoy paying special attention to the theorbo player and this fascinating instrument. Anyway, all four members of The Opus Project blend wonderfully well together and produce some of the most dulcet tones you’re likely to hear from any small ensemble.

Although there is a degree of sameness about La Barre’s music, there is, nevertheless, enough variety to maintain one’s interest. The movements range from slow and stately to vigorous and lively, some even playful. Interestingly, the pace appears to pick up by the second suite, which is really quite charming. In fact, I found the suites becoming more endearing as they went along, as though La Barre were just getting the hang of things with practice, continuing to recognize how to gain his audience’s attention and keep it. He kept mine, with perhaps a big help from The Opus Project.

Producers Bob Lord and Noemy Gagnon-Lafrenais and engineer Philippe Bouvrette recorded the music at Eglise Saint-Augustin, Mirabel, Quebec, Canada in July 2021. The miking is moderately close, providing a detailed presentation. Yet it’s not so close as to exclude a pleasant hall resonance, which gives the performances a realistic sense of presence.

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa