Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is undoubtedly one of those “borderless” composers who knew how to play with the national musical styles of their time, model them and shape them according to their own genius. Christophe Rousset offers an original highlighting of the music of the famous cantor in this all-European, multi-colored program, made of borrowings and inspiration from travel.
Thus, Suite No. 2 for flute, strings and basso continuo BWV 1067, with its overture and its “French-style” dances and the Italian-language cantata Non so che sia dolore BWV 209 frame another marvelous cantata for soprano, Orfeo , by the Italian Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736), as well as extracts from the works of two French masters of the art of “united tastes”: François Couperin (1668-1733) and André Campra (1660-1744). These extracts highlight in turn the purity of Germanic counterpoint, the lightness of Italian singing and the nobility of Spain, mixing the sonade of “L'Impériale” and the passacaglia of “L'Espagnene” taken from the famous Couperin Nations ; as well as two arias by Campra, in Italian (“La farfalla intorno ai fiori”, taken from Les Fêtes Vénitiennes ) and Spanish (“El esperar en amor” taken from L’Europe galante ). All composed during Bach's lifetime, these works brought together bear witness to the enthusiasm and excitement that these confrontations of nations in music throughout Europe in the 18th century aroused among musicians and their audiences .
