Olivier Schneebeli, Orchestre des Folies Françoises - Rigel: La Sortie d'Egypte, Jephté, La destruction de Jéricho (2006)
Olivier Schneebeli, Orchestre des Folies Françoises, Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles - Henri-Joseph Rigel: Trois hiérodrames: La Sortie d'Egypte, Jephté, La destruction de Jéricho (2006)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 372 Mb | Total time: 73:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: K617 | K617198 | Recorded: 2006
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 372 Mb | Total time: 73:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: K617 | K617198 | Recorded: 2006
Paris certainly held great attraction for German composers of the late 18th century. One of them was Henri-Joseph Rigel, born as Riegel in Wertheim in Germany. Rigel was already active as a composer of orchestral music while still in Germany, where he studied with Niccolò Jommelli in Stuttgart. It is not exactly known when he went to Paris, but in 1768 he established his own residence in the French capital. In that same year he married, and in 1769 and 1772 his two sons were born.
It didn't take long before Rigel started to play a crucial role in French musical life. He was praised for being an excellent teacher and his music was characterised as full of ideas, with graceful and fluent melodies, and of true expression. Until the end of his life he had several positions, like that of chef d'orchestre Concert Spirituel and, after the Revolution, as professor for piano of the Conservatoire.
Rigel contributed to almost every genre of music of that time, including the opera. Some of his operas were very successful. The three works recorded here belong to the category of the hiérodrame, meaning 'sacred drama'. It was the result of the attempt of the directors of the Concert Spirituel - François-Joseph Gossec, Simon Le Duc and Pierre Gaviniès - to revitalise the tradition of the grand motet which was in decline. With the term hiérodrame they wanted to underline its innovative nature. In fact this genre conbined elements from the grand motet and the tragédie lyrique. These hiérodrames were performed at the Concert Spirituel, but in concertante form, not staged.
Otherwise they are rather close to the opera, and that is certainly the case with Rigel's three , performed here. La Sortie d'Égypte (the departure from Egypt) describes in six short scenes how the people of Israel are freed from Egypt by God and how the Egyptian army is swollen by the sea. The orchestral score shows why Rigel was held in high regard as a symphonist, as he uses the orchestra very effectively to depict the natural phenomena like sea and thunder. Vry striking is the sequence of choruses which closes the oratorio. Whereas the Egyptians sing to a very lively rhythm "Run, let us hasten! … May this guilty people feel your blows", only to discover somewhat later how they are in danger of drowning into the water, the Israelites' choruses are characterised by peace and quiet, reflecting their trust in God. This way the conflict between Egyptians and Israelites is made very strongly felt.
This oratorio became very popular and was frequently performed at the Concert Spirituel for 14 years after its first performance in 1774. Christoph Willibald von Gluck was full of praise of Rigel: "You have here a man whom you must retain at all costs: M. Rigel is the man you need for grand theatre. When one has produced an oratorio such as La Sortie d'Égypte, one is capable of creating major works". In contrast the largest work on this disc, Jephté, was only performed once by the Concert Spirituel, in 1784. The year before it had been performed elsewhere, and then it met strong ciriticism as it was thought the romantic element was too elaborated. As a result Rigel reworked it, and as it was performed in 1784 the subject of criticism had been largely removed. Still Rigel introduces a character the biblical narration doesn't tell about: Azael, suitor of Jephtha's daughter - called Aza here - is waiting for Jephtha to return home, together with Aza. When the fate of Aza becomes clear to him he offers to take her place. Later on he urges Jephtha to try to mollify God by fasting and prayer. The contrast between Jephtha and his daugther is very effectively worked out by the two strongly contrasting arias. Jephtha's lament on the fate of his daughter shows the full amount of Rigel's expressive powers, particularly by the orchestral score which is rich of affect.
The third work, La Destruction de Jéricho (the destruction of Jericho) was another great success. After its first performance in 1778 it was regularly performed during the next seven years. Here again we meet Rigel the symphonist: unlike the other two oratorios this work begins with an overture, and then the wind section of the orchestra is particularly exploited to illustrate the power with which God destroys the city of Jericho. Again Rigel uses a sequence of choruses to show the conflict between the Israelites and - this time - the inhabitants of Jericho. The oratorio ends with a chorus in which the people of Israel sing the praises of God.
This is a most intriguing disc, presenting repertoire hitherto unknown, from a neglected part of music history. Although there are slight cuts in two of the three oratorios we have to be thankful that the participants in this recording have made them available to a modern audience. There are a number of solo parts, mostly rather small, which are all sung very well. The main soloists here are Isabelle Poulenard - particularly impressive as Aza in " -, Philippe Do - Azael in " - and Alain Buet, who sings the main roles in all three oratorios: Moses (Moïse) in La Sortie d'Égypte, Jephtha (Jephté) and Joshua (Josué) in La Destruction de Jéricho. In all three roles he gives marvellous performances, authoritative as Moses, deeply moving in Jephté's lament. The choir also gives strong performances and so does the orchestra, although sometimes I had liked a little more bite. But that is also the effect of the reverberation which is larger than had been ideal.–Johan van Veen
Performer:
Isabelle Poulenard, dessus
Philippe Do, haute-contre
Alain Buet, bass taille
Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
Orchestre des Folies Françoises
Olivier Schneebeli, direction
Tracklist:
Henri-Joseph Rigel (1741-1799)
Trois hiérodrames
La Sortie d'Egypte
01. Introduction et quatuor des Israélites
02. Récit et air de Moïse
03. Chœur lamentable des Égyptiens
04. Récit de Moïse et d'un Israélite
05. Scène dernière
06. Chœur et chant de victoire
Jephté
07. Introduction (andante maestoso)
08. Ariette d'Aza et chœur
09. Ariette d'Aza (andante grazioso) et chœur des femmes
10. Aza et Azaël, romance d'Azaël
11. Duo d'Aza et Azaël (allegretto)
12. Symphonie triomphale et lointaine avec chœur (allegretto)
13. Récitatif: Aza, Azaël et Jephté
14. Ariette de Jephté (andante)
15. Ariette d'Aza (maestoso)
16. Récit d'Azaël et cavatine de Jephté
17. Final
La Destruction de Jéricho
18. Ouverture
19. Récitatif de Josué
20. Trompettes des Lévites
21. Chœur simultané
22. Arioso d'un habitant de Jéricho et air de Josué
23. Récitatif de Josué et cantique de jeunes filles israélites
24. Chœur général
Exact Audio Copy V1.5 from 20. February 2020
EAC extraction logfile from 2. December 2020, 14:29
Les Chantres Du Cmbv, Orchestre Des Folies Françoises, Isabelle Poulenard, Philippe Do, Alain Buet, Dir. Olivier Schneebeli / Rigel : Trois Hiérodrames Sortied'Egypte, Jephté, Destruction de Jéricho)
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH24NSD5 Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:50.64 | 0 | 21813
2 | 4:50.64 | 4:13.38 | 21814 | 40826
3 | 9:04.27 | 2:07.17 | 40827 | 50368
4 | 11:11.44 | 1:22.21 | 50369 | 56539
5 | 12:33.65 | 3:43.59 | 56540 | 73323
6 | 16:17.49 | 2:28.44 | 73324 | 84467
7 | 18:46.18 | 0:52.19 | 84468 | 88386
8 | 19:38.37 | 3:48.36 | 88387 | 105522
9 | 23:26.73 | 2:29.57 | 105523 | 116754
10 | 25:56.55 | 3:47.28 | 116755 | 133807
11 | 29:44.08 | 3:17.73 | 133808 | 148655
12 | 33:02.06 | 2:16.24 | 148656 | 158879
13 | 35:18.30 | 4:07.43 | 158880 | 177447
14 | 39:25.73 | 4:40.74 | 177448 | 198521
15 | 44:06.72 | 2:38.71 | 198522 | 210442
16 | 46:45.68 | 2:08.19 | 210443 | 220061
17 | 48:54.12 | 5:01.46 | 220062 | 242682
18 | 53:55.58 | 4:20.16 | 242683 | 262198
19 | 58:15.74 | 1:39.22 | 262199 | 269645
20 | 59:55.21 | 3:06.73 | 269646 | 283668
21 | 63:02.19 | 3:07.23 | 283669 | 297716
22 | 66:09.42 | 2:28.26 | 297717 | 308842
23 | 68:37.68 | 3:21.48 | 308843 | 323965
24 | 71:59.41 | 2:24.72 | 323966 | 334837
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename I:\Rips\Rigel - La Sortie d'Egypte - Schneebeli\Poulenard, Do, Buet, Schneebeli - Rigel - Trois Hiérodrames.wav
Peak level 99.2 %
Extraction speed 7.8 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0B17819F
Copy CRC 0B17819F
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [AB9E8CA0] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A21E5691] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [CF86176D] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [DD297C02] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [8CDFEBBD] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [DADC8EF6] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [F621D022] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [5B889969] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [073FA31C] (AR v2)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [9F8E40AA] (AR v2)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [8E64D2DA] (AR v2)
Track 12 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [0BDC03F4] (AR v2)
Track 13 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [28B5E127] (AR v2)
Track 14 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [9765BC11] (AR v2)
Track 15 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [757AB576] (AR v2)
Track 16 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [4F34A6A5] (AR v2)
Track 17 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [7230B11D] (AR v2)
Track 18 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [2913A328] (AR v2)
Track 19 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A15D0DD8] (AR v2)
Track 20 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [69F2B785] (AR v2)
Track 21 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [0373D501] (AR v2)
Track 22 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [8F78E817] (AR v2)
Track 23 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A987A792] (AR v2)
Track 24 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [4FD9AE45] (AR v2)
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: 2IgwoNYVGFIMir7oaeHgYVgMxPQ-] found
Submit result: 2IgwoNYVGFIMir7oaeHgYVgMxPQ- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
2 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
3 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
4 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
5 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
6 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
7 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
8 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
9 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
10 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
11 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
12 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
13 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
14 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
15 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
16 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
17 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
18 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
19 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
20 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
21 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
22 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
23 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
24 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum DBC37DDC74823EDA8C094036EED44C26395AED7B33BFB74E9CE9EF222EF9EEC9 ====
Olivier Schneebeli, Orchestre des Folies Françoises - Rigel: La Sortie d'Egypte, Jephté, La destruction de Jéricho (2006)
Thanks to the original releaser