Pas de bourrée Works by JS Bach, Telemann, Campra, Roman, Vivaldi and Purcell Camerata Øresund Channel Classics CCS45823 65:15 mins
Pas de bourrée serves as an umbrella or, more appropriately perhaps, parasol under which are gathered dance movements from orchestral suites and concertos of a predominantly sunny disposition. Rameau’s older contemporary André Campra is generously accommodated with movements from his 1697 opéra-ballet, L’Europe galante, while the father of Swedish music, Johann Helmich Roman, contemporary of Bach and Handel, is hardly less so with dances from his Golovinmusiken. This was music arranged in 1728 to commemorate the coronation of Tsar Peter II. Danish Ensemble Camerata Øresund brings charm to some unfailingly attractive music and deserves credit for airing Roman’s too-often-overlooked compositions.
With Bach’s Concerto in A major for harpsichord and strings, and Vivaldi’s Concerto in E minor for four violins from L’estro armonico the overtly dance element implied by the album’s title is pushed into the background. Marius Mohlin’s solo harpsichord playing in the Bach concerto is lively and in its outer movements the music sparkles in its A major clothes.
A suite from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and selected dances from Telemann’s Ouverture des Nations anciens et modernes complete an imaginatively constructed and incisively executed musical sequence. It seems odd, though, that the ouverture itself is omitted from the Telemann suite. It is arguably the finest of the movements and one of which the composer thought well enough to provide the overture of his opera Der geduldige Socrates. That apart, the characterisation of the dances here and throughout is infectious under Peter Spissky’s direction.
Nicholas Anderson