The charm of early music

The La Sainte Folie Fantastique trio will be offering Baroque music lovers a real treatduring the upcoming Valletta Baroque Festival. James Vella catches up with viola da gamba player Lucile Boulanger as preparations for their concert in Malta start in earnest.

A chance meeting between three musicians – violinist Jérôme van Waerbeke, viola da gamba player Lucile Boulanger and harpsichordist Arnaud De Pasquale – led to the formation of La Sainte Folie Fantastique in 2005.

At that time, composers were not very bothered as much as nowadays about posterity, and most of the musical works they wrote were not even published

The three first performed together when they were still students, for “a certain mysterious Mr Groebe”. Since then, they didn’t look back and a series of public performances led to the recording of their first CD, dedicated to a previously unheard English manuscript.

Now, the trio will be one of the main perfoming talents at the forthcoming Valletta International Baroque Festival 2013.

During their performance in January they will confront two major composers from the end of the late 17th and early 18th century, Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695), who both wrote the very first trio sonatas for two violins and bass in the 1680s.

What makes you connect to the Baroque idiom and attracts you to this music?

We have been hearing Renaissance and Baroque music since we were born, perhaps even before that! In fact, we have been playing this music since we were five. This idiom is so familiar to us that we cannot really say we chose it. It is more of a case that the aesthetics of this music made us into the musicians that we are. This music skilfully combines dance, vocality and theatricality. It’s also incredibly rich and varied (from the Renaissance to the pre-Classic period), and it also varies in style across different countries. Contrary to its ‘reputation’, this music is not pretentious at all but it was almost always written to be functional (for church services or to be performed during balls). Composition was more a craft than an art, and was made in a very humble way.

What are the main challenges when you are performing?

Most of the time the principal difficulties are before the concert. There is absolutely no leader in our ensemble, and we think it’s an incredible asset. But the disadvantage is that everything takes much more time. From creating an original programme, to building the interpretation in a way that suits each of our artistic personality. Moreover, it has become very difficult to find opportunities to perform. But then the actual moment of the concert is the best part, which can be very rewarding but here the main challenge is to enjoy it as much as possible.

How do you communicate with the audience during a performance?

Music is already a means of communication, isn’t it? We constantly strive to bring this 350-year-old music to life in a balanced manner. With freedom, but at the same time with respect to the text. We just try to deliver the musical message to our audience in the most honest and authentic way we can.

How do you expect your audience to respond to your music?

We would like our audience to receive this music in the most simple and natural way possible, as if it was ‘their’ music. We hope they will feel the natural balance and rhythm and that the music will appeal to all their senses simultaneously, mind, heart and body.

Who are your favourite composers and why?

There are a good number of composers who inspire us but we can safely say that we harbour a special love for English and German music of the 17th century. At that time, composers were not very bothered as much as nowadays about posterity, and most of the musical works they wrote were not even published. There exist so many magnificent pieces that were not even signed.

What are your expectations from performing in Valletta next year?

It’s a great honour for us to take part in this first edition of the Valletta Baroque Festival. We hope we will be able to contribute to the re-discovery and the spreading of this music in Malta. We also hope there will be people of all ages, that they will like baroque instruments and maybe that we will instill in some of them the wish to learn a baroque instrument such as the baroque violin, the viola da gamba or the harpsichord. This could eventually lead to a greater appreciation and perhaps the installing of a musical department specialised in early music in Malta.

What are your future projects?

La Sainte Folie Fantastique’s first recording should come out next spring under the label Alpha. We hope to have opportunities to perform this great music in front of a live audience. Right now, we are preparing a programme around Neapolitan villanella and madrigals with three Corsican singers and a dancer. We are also planning a special project featuring Jean-Philippe Rameau.

La Sainte Folie Fantastique will be performing on January 12 at the Church of All Souls, Merchants Street, Valletta. The concert starts at 7.30pm. For tickets, call the Manoel Theatre’s booking office on 2122 2616 or send an e-mail to bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt.

www.vallettabaroquefestival.com.mt