To recreate the performance setting for which it was intended, we have chosen to intersperse improvised verses within the work, using the practice of alternation. This choice is in keeping with a historically informed perspective, which is essential when approaching this repertoire. Not only does such an approach enable us to develop an interpretation that is closer to the sources, and to understand the work more deeply, it also reveals its potential for re-creation.

After all, it’s all about recreating. The truth of the past belongs to the past. In the context of an artistic project, historical sources are first and foremost sources of inspiration, and the music of the past is the music of the future. Historically informed practices are also part of history, and follow aesthetic, musical and academic fashions. I have therefore chosen a resolutely creative stance, which aims to avoid the pitfall of pastism as much as an aesthetic of the avant-garde and the radically new, which today are no longer sufficient to nourish the need for new ideas.

The alternations are played on the cello, not sung. The instrument is modern, not Baroque. The organ is not a classical French organ, and is tuned to equal temperament. The musical language of the improvisations is composite, reflecting the cellist’s eclectic musical background.

The current trend is towards meeting and mixing genres. Here, I wanted to be at the heart of this movement, using the forms of the past to illuminate the possible paths of future music. May this recording be yet another milestone on the road to these unexplored lands.