Jean-fery Rebel, Francois Rebel - Rebel De Pere En Fils (2014) [Official Digital Download - 24bit/88.2kHz]

Marrying stage ‘drama’ and chamber ‘concert’, this début album from Les Surprises draws on 18th century French opera. Exploring a dynamic repertoire variously familiar and forgotten, bringing theatre into the salon, these enlightened, intimate arrangements will astonish, inspire and surprise.

Composer: Jean-Féry Rebel, Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises

Reviews: I don’t profess to understand the duality that runs throughout the two Rebels’ lives that artistic director Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas states justifies this recording—especially since once he states it as a fact, the subject is dropped. Suffice to say that the album combines orchestral works by Jean-Fery Rebel, best known for his innovative ballets, and excerpts from the operas written by his son, François Rebel, in lifelong collaboration with François Francœur. It’s the kind of concert that’s increasingly common among musicians wishing to develop public interest in seldom heard operas of the Baroque. Certainly Rebel and Francœur fit this definition; and they deserve better than the single recording their operas have thus far received, a mediocre reading of their Pirame et Thisbè on Mirare 058.


It doesn’t surprise, either, that the majority of operatic excerpts heard here derive from Rebel and Francœur’s Ballet de la Paix , given that the Ensemble Les Surprises were responsible for the first modern performance of the work just last year. The mix of nearly 20 airs and dances they offer from it, as well as Prince de Noisy and Scanderberg , reveal a vigorous but homogenously smooth sound. The musicians are at their best in these operatic excerpts, which presumably reflects at least some of the expressive decisions made for live performance on stage. It helps that in baritone Étienne Bazola they have a fine singer with a rounded tone, almost Italianate in its sensuousness. Juliette Perret, the other soloist in the operatic selections, displays rather more color and a well-mixed sound. Both bring their characters, chosen for emotional variety, to life. Good, too, is Jean-Fery Rebel’s Tombeau de Monsieur de Lully , with a nice variety of tempos between parts.


I could wish for more elasticity in the phrasing in general, and from the violin soloist in particular, but that brings us to the quality I miss most here: a sense of flair. I’d have preferred greater accenting of the deliberate off-rhythms in the “Air pour les plaisirs,” and the notes a bit more clearly separated in the figurations of the “Tambourins.” The soloists and accompaniment in the Chaconne hardly stand out from the texture, and there’s no cumulative effect as a result. I find Benardini/Harmony of Nations (Raumklang 2704) considerably better in Jean-Fery Rebel’s Les caractères . The composer essentially utilizes a repeating half cadence at the close to join 14 very short dances into one continuous work, and Bernardini emphasizes their distinctiveness through sharp rhythmic accenting, changes of tempo, and orchestral variety. Ensemble Les Surprises de-emphasizes these differences, and loses out in the process.


Still, this is a young ensemble, both in terms of experience and the age of its performers; and judging from their music-making on this release, a promising one with no lapses in technique or style. Recommended with reservations noted, and with hopes that Ensemble Les Surprises will record Le Ballet de la Paix with Bazola and Perret.

Tracklisting:

1. Les caractères de la danse by Jean-Féry Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1715; Paris, France
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 8 Minutes 26 Secs.
2. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air. Quel éclat dans ces cieux by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 3 Minutes 58 Secs.
3. Le Ballet de la Paix: Prélude pour de Jugement de Paris by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 0 Minutes 50 Secs.
4. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air pour Vénus by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 1 Minutes 29 Secs.
5. Le Ballet de la Paix: Musette pour Paris by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 1 Minutes 18 Secs.
6. Le Ballet de la Paix: Sarabande pour Junon by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 1 Minutes 42 Secs.
7. Scanderberg: Air. Fureur, Amour, secondez mon impatience by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1735
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 4 Minutes 23 Secs.
8. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air pour les plaisirs by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 1 Minutes 48 Secs.
9. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air. Enfants de la paix by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 1 Minutes 42 Secs.
10. Le Ballet de la Paix: Menuets by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 2 Minutes 52 Secs.
11. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air. Hommages éclatants by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 2 Minutes 26 Secs.
12. Le Ballet de la Paix: Récit et duo. Tendre Amour by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 4 Minutes 4 Secs.
13. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air pour les peuples d'Amathontes by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 1 Minutes 55 Secs.
14. Le Ballet de la Paix: Tambourins by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 2 Minutes 18 Secs.
15. Le Prince de Noisy: Air. Il gémit dans les fers by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1749
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 4 Minutes 9 Secs.
16. Le Ballet de la Paix: Chaconne by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 8 Minutes 13 Secs.
17. Le Ballet de la Paix: Air. Trop faible, Ismène, hélas! by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 3 Minutes 11 Secs.
18. Le Ballet de la Paix: Duo. Que les vents les plus doux by Francois Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1738
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 2 Minutes 13 Secs.
19. Sonatas (12) for 2 and 3 instruments: no 7, Le tombeau de Monsieur Lully by Jean-Féry Rebel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Les Surprises
Period: Baroque
Written: 1695; France
Venue: Espace culturel C.J. Bonnet, Jujurieux,
Length: 15 Minutes 24 Secs.



Thanks to the original customer