Quiet Hearts

In 2018, four friends studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London decided to form an ensemble, which they named Théodora. Mariamielle Lamagat (soprano), Louise Ayrton (baroque violin), Lucie Chabard (harpsichord), and Alice Trocellier (viola da gamba) dedicate themselves to French baroque music and its influence on musical development. For their first recording, part of the "Baroque Stories" series on the Alpha Classics label, they chose to trace the French style in 18th-century Germany—where the dance forms, dotted rhythms, modulations, and harmonies fashionable at the court of Louis XIV inspired composers to create numerous transcriptions, original works, and new instrumental practices. Johann Fischer and Johann Philipp Krieger made no secret of their admiration for Campra and Lully, whose music enjoyed such great success beyond the Rhine. The program includes, among other things, the magnificent "Duo de la paix et de la félicité" (Duet of Peace and Bliss) in a surviving version from Berlin, heard here with the participation of mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet. Of course, Bach cannot be missing: he valued the French organ school, particularly Jacques Boyvin, whose wonderful Récit tendre from the Second Livre d’Orgue (1700) he transcribed for violin, viola da gamba, and basso continuo.