The Talcy Manuscript

Entering the château de Talcy stirs, without fail, an intense and strange emotion… While the image of the Age of Enlightenment is everywhere present in these history-laden rooms, thanks to a remarkable museum effort, the voice of their former inhabitants seems curiously absent, as if today only the eyes could bring the past back to life.

Sometimes, however, the chance arises to give meaning back to other senses, hearing, in this case, and it must not be missed. Beneath the delicate guise of a manuscript devoted to the hurdy-gurdy, written for one of the Burgeat young ladies in the first decades of the 18th century and recently rediscovered by Paul Fustier, the sonic world of the Talcy estate is revealed at last: ample, rich, diverse and colourful. Compositions by Marais, Lully and Rameau rub shoulders cheerfully with the country-dances of the time, and with the airs and brunettes that delighted Paris and the provinces.

This rare opportunity to bring together a particular place and the musical practice that once flourished there comes to life under the fingers of the musicians of Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy, who revive an extraordinary testimony to the musical vitality of the age. By setting Couperin's original harpsichord pieces against the transcriptions made for the hurdy-gurdy in the manuscript, by offering the savoury words of the vaudevilles in the collection, or by stringing together fashionable country-dances in the manner of the balls held in the patrician houses of the 18th century, Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy hope that the senses may once again beat in unison.

Programme

• Suite in E minor, opus 35, J. B. de Boismortier
• Vaudeville "Dormir est un temps perdu", Anonymous
• La noce de village, Jean Hotteterre
• Sung round "D'où venez-vous belle", Anonymous
• Two musettes from Les Fêtes grecques et romaines, C. de Blamont
• Chantez ma musette, L. N. Clérambault
• Suite of pieces, Fr. Couperin
• Les nonnettes: La Blonde and La Brunette
• Suite of pieces, Caix d'Hervelois
• Suite of pieces, Anonymous / Lully

In the press

Anne Rousset, administrator of the château de Talcy, won her wager with the concerts offered on Sunday, in the church and in the château, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the residence by restoring its 18th-century sonic world: ample, rich, diverse and colourful. To do so, she invited an ensemble from Belgium made up of Belgian, German and French musicians and singer, Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy, a company founded in 1989 by its current director, Jean-Luc Impe (theorbo), and his wife Catherine Daron (traverso). Initially specialised in comic operas for marionette theatres, Jean-Luc Impe discovered the Talcy Manuscript, written between 1730 and 1740, which gathers music by renowned composers such as Lully, François Couperin, Caix d'Hervelois, Mouret, Blamont, Clérambault and Boismortier, as well as anonymous authors.

The concert given in the church before some hundred people was sumptuous, with excellent acoustics. The five musicians and the tenor Stéphan Van Dyck performed gavottes, minuets, bourrées and other rondeaux and marches. What to say of the sound of the hurdy-gurdy in the expert hands of the German Riccardo Delfino, not to mention the Frenchman Édouard Catalan on cello and Luc Vanvaerenbergh on harpsichord. Afterwards, they were given a standing ovation.

La Nouvelle République