This first disc from the Muso label features the young early music generation in France.

Julien Léonard, one of the finest gamba players of his generation, champions these works with brio and elan. He is accompanied by Thomas Dunford on theorbo and François Guerrier on harpsichord. A fantastic first disc for this dynamic trio.

In the early 17th century, the golden age of the viola da gamba, Antoine Forqueray was a musician at the court of Louis XIV and the young rival of a certain Marin Marais. Jean-Baptiste, Antoine’s son, studied the viol with his father and became a renowned virtuoso. He had, however, a singular relationship with his father, no doubt on account of the latter’s robust character. Two years after his father’s death, Jean-Baptiste brought out a posthumous edition of his father’s works, himself adding the continuo bass line, and completing certain suites with his own compositions. Hence the uncertainty that continues to mark these superb pieces with regard to their true paternity.

Although already recorded by today’s leading viol players - Jordi Savall, Paolo Pandolfo, Wieland Kuijken, this is nonetheless the first recording of these Suites with a continuo bass comprising a theorbo and a harpsichord. Indeed, though they are generally performed by a consort of two viols and a harpsichord (as suggested by Jean-Baptiste on his manuscript), Julien Léonard notes that “like his father, Jean-Baptiste mainly appeared on his own or with a harpsichord. We have therefore taken up the challenge of forming a three-part consort, with a lute and not a second bass viol, in order to give even greater variety of sound and to clarify the discourse even more. With this idea ever in mind, several pieces are performed solely by the viol and the harpsichord, the viol and the lute or the viol on its own”.

Supported by warm sound recording, the talented trio of Musicall Humors underscores the character of each of these pieces, and enables one to plunge with delectation into this first opus of muso. A magnificent premiere for a new label!