A strange and mostly bloodless war raged in the early eighteenth century. War for music.

The authority of such a noble musical instrument as the viola da gamba was hotly disputed. If two hundred years ago we took for granted the dominance of the violin in colloquial (and not only) music, then until the end of the seventeenth week the obvious belonged to the viola. The violin, however, won the war, and another blow came to the defeat of the viola: its further marginalization by the cello and the evolution of the viola as we know it today (in a symphony orchestra it looks like a violin). but a little older – and with a somewhat more “thick”, sad sound). It was the end of an era. If anyone was deeply affected by this transition, it was the charismatic French composer and viola da gamba virtuoso Marine Marais (1656–1728).

This gifted Parisian of modest origin rose through his talent (and his opportunism, they say evil tongues) to the court of Louis XIV, being an apprentice along with the musical boulder of the time, Jean-Baptiste Louly. The father of nineteen (!) children, Marais was also a teacher: his famous five collections of works for viola solo were nothing more than exercises for his students. And yet they have entered Western musical literature as priceless relics. No less valuable are his works, which combine viola and key. Thus, the meter in the performance of the works of the era of Jordi Saval revealed the rare sound of the Marais.

However, the new recording of Harmonia Mundi in 2023 suggests something different: these small-big works are transferred to the cello and piano. Two contemporary masters are responsible for this marvelous “blasphemy”: Jean-Guien Queyras on cello and Alexandre Tarot on piano on their very recent CD, simply titled “Marin Marais”.

Maybe Mar himself looked down on all this. But what is left of this particular project is the essence of music that has hidden entire worlds within itself. Elegant, refined, all refined, at the same time it could become explosive (these “leaves” in the Marais variations…), sad, but also full of sensual heat, melodic and rhythmic. Kiras-Taro manages to preserve the aura of the era and at the same time bring this unique sound to today’s ear with unsurpassed technique and crystallized emotionality. This is Mr Gray’s musical offering for Holy Week and more.