“No one has surpassed Marais: only one has equalled him, and that is the famous Forqueray”: with these words, in 1752, a contemporary praised one of the great virtuosos of the viola da gamba. Known for his formidably difficult and technical musical style, Forqueray’s world is nonetheless immensely rich: through the works of the father Antoine, his son Jean-Baptiste and his nephew Nicolas-Gilles, an august lineage emerges whose grace and genius never ceased to inspire. At times proud, even bellicose, at other times deeply tender, the viol pieces by this Forqueray family plunge us into a flight of expressions of passions whose vivacity is equalled only by their intensity.

Myriam Rignol, as a distant granddaughter, accompanied by her exquisite Timbres, delivers in this complete work a powerful homage to these 18th-century music icons who, in their image, could never be anything other than virtuoso.