The early French Baroque has been relatively slow to catch on in historical performance circles, at least outside France, probably because it's more difficult for the listener than the melancholy viol music of England or the spectacularly passionate vocal works of Monteverdi. The larger French genres are unfamiliar and involve a visual aspect that would be difficult if not impossible to re-create. As for chamber music, the French repertoire contains a mixed bag of genres, with imported music (has there ever been a period of French musical history in which there wasn't a dispute between partisans of French and of Italian music) competing with the native air de cour (court air) and with instrumental styles, including those involving the lute. Even at this early date, Spanish music too held a special fascination in Paris. This pan-continental disc, with Belgian tenor Stephan van Dyck paired with a group of mostly Austrian string players, offers a near-perfect introduction to this period of French music. As the title of the album suggests, the idea of the love song loosely ties the program together. Instrumental pieces, most of dance-oriented works for lute, are interspersed among various languages of love; it is noteworthy how even the lifelong French composer Etienne Moulinie was setting Italian texts (such as the extremely seductive Stelle homicide [Murderous Stars, track 7]) at this point. The first segments of the program are devoted to the French air de cour, a simple strophic song seemingly governed by a variety of restrictions. Then things broaden out and explore the new musical currents rushing across Europe in the first half of the seventeenth century. Sample two successive instrumental works, the Caravanda Ciacona of the apparently Spanish guitarist Luis de Briceno (track 12), with vigorously strummed rhythms that suggest nothing so much as rock & roll power chords, and then the viol Symphonie of Louis Couperin, one of the later works on the album. The contrast in moods is lovely. The entire album has this kind of pleasing variety that entertains as it instructs. Van Dyck's remarkably gentle and limpid high tenor is another major contributor to the delight, and all of the diverse performing forces brought together here interact superbly. The sound environment of the Austrian castle used is ideal. In all, this is a must-have Baroque disc that will alter the perceptions even of devoted listeners to music of the period.

Rovi