Marais La gamme. Sonate a la Maresienne. London Baroque Ingrid Seifert (vn) Charles Medlam (va da gamba) William Hunt (va da gamba) John Toll (hpd).

Harmonia Mundi £5.50 (LP) HM1105 £5.50 (Cassette) HM40 1105.

London Baroque, one of our best pre-classical ensembles, has chosen an all-Narais programme for its debut on gramophone records. Both works come from a collection published in 1723 containing unusually extended pieces in a style often removed from that of Marais's Pieces de violes. The most elaborate of them is La gamme which, as its name suggests, relies both on the ascending and descending levels of the scale for its invention. Its opening measures, an upward and downward C major scale, do not, perhaps, promise much in the way of entertainment but Marais soon involves us in a kaleidoscope of rhythms, harmonic shifts, tonal colours and affections which are bound together by the overall scale-wise concept of the work. It is a considerable tour de force on the part of the by then elderly composer, for nowhere does the invention flat though I felt, too, that Marais only intermittently speaks with that eloquence which characterizes so many of his Pieces de violes. I found myself revited more by the structure and novelty of the piece, "en forme de petit opera", as Marias described it, than by its melodic content. Nevertheless, the harmonic strength and rich rhythmic vocabulary raise La gamme gar beyond the realms of the merely novel. Ingrid Seifert and Charles Medlam offer a vivid and well-sustained performance, full of vitality and commendably alive to the innumerable subtleties of the text.

The Sonate a la Maresienne for violin and continuo is more conventional in form and reverts to a more characteristic idiom; but I found it hardly less of a work than the other, even though it is considerably less than half its length. Ingrid Seifert gives a colourful and splendidly incisive account of it, stylishly embellished and with an effective forcefulness; not that she has all the fun by any means as the thrilling ostinato-based variations in the "tres vivement" amply testify.

All in all then, a fine achievement with a recorded sound to match the excellence of the playing. Only a substandard pressing marred my enjoyment.

NA