Since 1987, Dan Laurin has released some thirty titles on BIS, with recorder music spanning across the world – from Japan to England by way of Sweden – and the ages: from the complete Der Fluyten Lust-hof by van Eyck to Chiel Meijering's Rock that Flute. On his latest disc, Sonates et Suites he has chosen to visit France at an exciting point in time. In the early 18th century, when all of the sonatas and suites included here were composed, the system of censorship that ensured that nothing was printed without royal permission (le privilège du roi) was beginning to crumble, at least in the field of music. One contributing factor was ‘le Concert Spirituel’, a series of privately arranged public concerts which was inaugurated in 1725, and which meant nothing less than an aesthetic revolution for the attending Parisians. Sometimes performances of Italian music in particular led to actual brawls between advocates of the French and the Italian style, but in time the encounter between French elegance and Italian sensuousness led to a fruitful relaxation of the musical styles. On their extremely well-filled disc (85+ minutes!), Laurin and his fellow musicians Anna Paradiso on harpsichord and cellist Domen Marinčič illustrate this process in sound, with a quintessentially French suite by Charles Dieupart rubbing shoulders with an italianate 'Suite-Sonate' by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, who after spending some time in Rome earned the nick-name ‘le Romain’. The disc also presents Dan Laurin with the perfect opportunity to perform on his own instrument the most iconic piece of French music from this period. Prepare yourself for Marin Marais' Folies d'Espagne like you have never heard them before, in Laurin's own arrangement for solo recorder!
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