Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray represent the two leading figures from the world of the French viola da gamba with – in the opinion of a contemporary in Hubert Le Blanc – the former playing like an angel and the latter like a devil. And fiendishly difficult to play, of course, are many of the pieces brought together in the volume prepared by Jean-Baptiste Forqueray (“le fils”) in 1747, two years after the death of his father, and drawn from sketches and memories. These Pièces de viole avec la basse continuë, dedicated to Princess Henriette of France (the younger of Louis XV’s twin daughters), serve as a final and grand homage to an instrument, which after seventy years of an absolute rule was by that time starting to cede territory to the cello…
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