Instruments and repertoire of the Grande Écurie and the Gardes Suisses at the French court of Louis XIV and XV.

There is a large number of documents extant from the mid-17th century to the French Revolution about the musical ensembles that were maintained at the court of the French kings. It is thus all the more surprising that in the case of many of these ensembles, one does not know down to the present day what instruments were used and what repertoire they played. It was the goal of a two-year research project of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis to research this topic, in particular the music of the ‘Grande Écurie’, (the ‘Grand Stable’) at Versailles. The project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The present CD (musiques suisses, MGB CD 6267) is a practical result of the ideas gained about how to rebuild the instruments in question and how to reconstruct their repertoire. Further information on the topic is to be found in the internet research database of the Schola Cantorum Basilienis (www.rimab.ch)

ensemble arcimboldo, Basel
Trompetenensemble der SCB
Leitung: Thilo Hirsch

Fifres:
Sarah van Cornewal
Boaz Berney
Sylvain Sartre
Richard Robinson

Tambours:
Danny Wehrmüller
Walter Büchler
Dominic Labhardt
Patric Imhof

Hautbois/Cromornes:
Johanne Maitre
Katharina Andres
Elsa Frank
Vincent Robin
Jeremy Papasergio

Trompettes marines:
Thilo Hirsch
Eberhard Maldfeld
Federico Abraham

Violons:
Cosimo Stawiarski
Diego Rivera
Tanja Bednjagina
Eva Neunhäuserer
Daniel Rosin

Trompettes:
Henry Moderlak (auch Trompe de Chasse)
Mike Diprose (auch Trompe de Chasse)
Giuseppe Frau
Christina Hess
Jean-François Madeuf (Leitung)
Christoph Draeger
Baltasar Streiff
Emile Meuffels

Timbales/Perkussion:
Philip Tarr
Markus Schmid