Ensemble Masques/Olivier Fortin – Bach, Telemann & Albinoni: Concerti

Montrealer now Europe-based Olivier Fortin and his ensemble Masques return with another recording on Alpha, a testament to a certain technical quality and public affection, as the European house maintains very high standards. This album, without a particular concept or underlying plot, features baroque music that brings Germany and Italy closer together, something that could have been perplexing at that time. However, outside the circles of purist church guardians, many composers of the time crossed stylistic borders with ease. This was the case with Bach, who was rather well aware of developments in Italian music, as was Telemann. The choice of Albinoni, less instinctive, is justified by the violist Kathleen Kajioka that the sinfonias chosen by this composer offer a very rich balance between the bass and treble, and that all the voices have a stimulating expressive activity, like with the Germans.

It is a slender, almost bare musical reading, in reasonable tempos, without the urgency of the versions in vogue for the past fifteen years, but which nevertheless do not lack momentum. In the absence of an energy that attracts attention, therefore, we have, in compensation, an astonishing clarity of the discourse and superimpositions of voices, which focus our attention with an unusual acuity. We particularly notice these characteristics in the two Bach concertos, 1041 and 1042, because they are so ingrained in our minds, and especially because they are performed with great elegance by the soloist Sophie Gent. But, despite the rarity of Albinoni’s two Sinfonias, we can also perceive this thinness of fabric which promotes transparency.

Halfway between Bach and Albinoni in terms of fame, Telemann’s Viola Concerto, one of the first of its kind, bears the same calm but rigorous light brought by the musicians of Quebecer Olivier Fortin.

A finely woven album, with an aesthetic coherence that is both very appropriate and skillfully rendered.