| RAMÉE |
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| Michel Pignolet de MONTÉCLAIR, Six Concerts à deux Flûtes Traversières sans Basses |
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The Concertos for two transverse flutes without bass make up part of a thread begun in 1709 with the
Suites de Pičces ŕ deux flűtes traversičres (Suites of Pieces for two transverse flutes) by Michel da La Barre,
who was both a composer and the first great French flute player. Particularly popular in France during
the first half of the 18th century, this genre inspired many composers. It is only a short step to imagining
that the regular practice of duos could even at this early stage have constituted an important pillar of all
flute players’ training. I even believe that cloaking the music in such attractive finery has promoted, and
still promotes today, a playful, almost sensual transmission of an instrumental know-how from
generation to generation, and from teacher to student, explaining the success of three centuries of French
flute playing.
Montéclair’s masterly interchange of the voices invites the players to demonstrate great complexity in
their performance, arousing a desire for osmosis, creating a surge of confidence, and of that very baroque
emotion, tenderness. He invites the performers to go beyond themselves, to lose themselves in joining
with the other player, to dissolve into an intangible world, beyond time and space, only to come back to
Earth in the next instant through a well-known melody, or a firmly marked bass, immediately evoking a
desire to dance.
This CD aims to fill an unfortunate void in current recordings of Montéclair’s music, and to encourage
further interest in his compositions.
Quebec-born MARIE-CÉLINE LABBÉ began her musical training on recorder, starting her professional career
as a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. A prize-winner at various musical competitions in Quebec and
across Canada, she went on to study flute in Quebec, Banff, Paris and Vienna, and traverso in Münster, graduating
with distinction in 1995. During this time, she worked with Alain Marion, András Adorján, Wolfgang
Schulz, Barthold Kuijken and Konrad Hünteler. A member of the Vienna Academy since 1991, she has performed
with many baroque orchestras, including Concilium musicum Wien, L'Orfeo Barockorchester, Aura Musicale,
the Haydn Sinfonietta Wien, and Concentus Musicus Wien, touring in Europe, North and Central America,
Turkey, Singapore and Japan. Marie-Céline Labbé has made several CD and broadcast recordings.
After her modern-flute studies in Salzburg, Innsbruck and Vienna, Munich-born MARION TREUPEL-FRANCK specialised in traverso, studying with Barthold Kuijken at the Royal Conservatorium in Brussels, and was awarded
that institution's diploma in 1998. She also received a grant from the Mainz Villa Musica foundation in 1995 and
1997 to work with Reinhard Goebel. Marion has played with several renowned baroque ensembles, such as the
Bach Collegium Japan, La Stagione Frankfurt, Currende, the Hassler Consort, Hofkapelle München and L'Estro
Armonico. She has also made many radio and CD recordings, and teaches at various international early music
courses. In 2000, she founded the Schlehdorf early music festival, and was director of the international
Renaissance music festival at the Gasteig in Munich in 2006. Marion has also been engaged to perform in various
prestigious international early-music concert series. Since 2001 she has taught traverso at the Richard Strauss
Conservatorium in Munich, and since 2008 at the Hochschule for Music and Theater in the same city.
