Robert de Visée; Michel Pignolet de Montéclair - Echoes of Versailles (Marion Treupel-Franck; Axel Wolf)

Information

Composer: Robert de Visée; Michel Pignolet de Montéclair

• Montéclair - L’autre jour ma Cloris
• De Visée - Suite in B Major
• De Visée - Suite in G Major for theorbo solo
• Montéclair - Ruisseau qui dans la plaine
• De Visée - Suite in G Minor
• Montéclair - La bergère Celimene et Doublé
• De Visée - Suite in D Minor
• Montéclair - L’autre jour m’alant promener et Doublé
• De Visée - Suite in A Minor

Marion Treupel-Franck, transverse flute

Axel Wolf, theorbo

Date: 2026

Label: Oehms Classics

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Lutenist Axel Wolf and flutist Marion Treupel-Franck explore the intimate chamber music of Sun King Louis XIV's Versailles on period instruments. The album juxtaposes Robert de Visée’s 1716 Pièces de Théorbe et de Luth, groundbreaking full-score ensemble arrangements of the monarch's favorite lutenist pieces, with Michel Pignolet de Montéclair’s Brunetes anciennes et modernes. Inspired by popular melodies sung by period opera-goers, Montéclair's tunes for transverse flute and bass complement Visée's refined suites. Driven by scholarly care and deep stylistic insight, Wolf and Treupel-Franck illuminate the rich, varied sonic world behind Versailles's gilded doors.

Robert de Visée (1652–1730) was a prominent French lutenist, theorbist, guitarist, viol player, singer, and composer who served at the royal courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. First documented in 1680 as a chamber musician at Versailles, he performed extensively for the royal court and was appointed Maître de Guitare du Roi to young Louis XV in 1719. Visée authored two acclaimed books of guitar suites (1682, 1686) and published Pièces de théorbe et de luth (1716), a landmark collection printed in staff notation suitable for both solo and chamber performances.

Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667–1737) was an influential French Baroque composer, bassist, and musical innovator. Rising from modest origins in Champagne to join the Paris Opéra orchestra, he studied under Jean-Baptiste Moreau and served the Prince de Vaudémont in Italy, where he pioneered introducing the double bass to opera orchestras. A highly respected educator whose students included François Couperin’s daughters, Montéclair published forward-thinking pedagogical treatises, including his 1730 Recueil de brunettes for flute. Although his compositional output was selective, his inventive theatrical orchestration, exemplified in stage works like Jephté, profoundly shaped French opera and inspired composers such as Jean-Philippe Rameau.

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