The poetic name *Près de votre oreille* (Close to Your Ear) conveys the uniqueness and the desire for closeness and sharing that define the entire ensemble led by gambist Robin Pharo. It invites listeners to discover previously unpublished court airs composed during the reign of Louis XIII—true gems of lute-accompanied song.
This genre, an heir to the Renaissance chanson, has since disappeared, but it remains one of the most refined, eclectic, and prolific movements of the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII. With *L’Heure si longtemps perdue*, *Près de votre oreille*, and Robin Pharo—a viola da gamba open to all ensembles and repertoires—they invite listeners to rediscover the golden age of the court air, with its intimate poetry and supreme refinement.
Here, previously unpublished airs by Bataille, Guédron, and Boësset are interwoven with pieces for lute—a fertile ground for experimentation for Dufaut, Le Vieux Gaultier, Pinel, and Mézangeau—rearranged for the ensemble’s instrumentation. These works bear witness to an era of transformation when French music did not hesitate to reinvent itself.
Discover the golden age of the air de cour, heir to the Renaissance chanson.
In France, during the reign of Louis XIII, it became the culmination of a certain poetic refinement. In 1608, Gabriel Bataille published the first volume of lute-accompanied airs, launching a vast collection that would bring the works of major composers to a wider audience.
The program features numerous masterpieces that have never before been recorded, composed by Pierre Guédron and Antoine Boësset. To accompany these airs de cour, the program unveils a series of pieces for the baroque lute—a realm of experimentation for François Dufaut, Le Vieux Gaultier, Germain Pinel, and René Mézangeau—arranged by Robin Pharo to incorporate viols, the archi lute, and the harp.
These works bear witness to an era of transformation in which French music reinvented its own language and laid the foundations for its modern identity, which we would continue to see through the 20th century. With *L’heure si longtemps perdue*, the ensemble *Près de votre oreille* offers an immersion into this foundational aesthetic.
This program was recorded in May 2025 and will be released on the harmonia mundi label.
ENSEMBLE PRÈS DE VOTRE OREILLE
– Anaïs Bertrand, mezzo-soprano
– Jean-Christophe Lanièce, baritone
– Angélique Mauillon, harp
– Simon Waddell, Renaissance lute, archlute
– Robin Pharo, treble, bass viola da gamba, conductor
THE HOUR SO LONG LOST
François Dufaut, Pierre Guédron, Germain Pinel, Etienne Moulinié…
Doors open at 10 a.m.
Breakfast provided by the association
