Tristan & Iseult / The Boston Camerata
Une légende du Moyen-Age en musique et en poésie

medieval.org
bostoncamerata.com

1987: Erato ECD 75528
1995: Erato 4509 98482-2
2008: Erato 4696340 ‘sans textes’





Vienna: anonyme, Vienna, B.N. ms. 2542

Prologue
1. Vienna, lai 2. Opening Music  [2:50]
2. anonyme, attribué à Tristan. Le lai du chevrefeuille  [3:12]

Tristan in Dublin
3. Vienna, lai 1. “Lai mortel”  [1:54]  H. Ledroit · vocalise
4. Jean BODEL, d. 1210. Les un pin verdoyant  [1:54]  A. Azéma

La traversée d'Irlande en Cornouaille/Le philtre d'amour
5. Gottes namen varen wir  [1:27]  ensemble
6. Vienna, lai 16, “Le lai du boire”. La u jou fui dedans la mer  [5:33]  H. Ledroit
7. Contessa de DIA, 12th c. | melody: Vienna, lai 3. Estat ai en greu cossirer  [3:34]  A. Azéma

Brangane
8. GOTTFRIED | melody: “Gottes namen fahren wir”. Dô wir zwô vuoren  [2:34]  E. Hargis
9. anonyme, Carmina Burana, 12th c. Bache bene venies  [2:49]  R. Morrison, ensemble | CB 200

Un Rendez-vous nocturne
10. Guiraut de BORNEILH, d. ca.1215. Reis Glorios  [3:48]  E. Hargis, H. Ledroit

Les amants surpris
11. Vienna, lai 3. Interlude  [0:49]
12. Conon de BÉTHUNE, c. 1150-1220. Se rage et derverie (strophes 1-3)  [2:08]  R. Morrison

L'épreuve d'Iseult
13. Guiraut RIQUIER, ca.1230-ca.1300. Jesu Crist  [1:55]  A. Azéma
14. [6:08]
anonyme, 13th c. Pange melos lacrimosum — W. Hite, R. Morrison
anonyme, 13th c. D'une fausse ypocrisie ~ Lux magna — E. Hargis
anonyme, 12th c. Alleluia, salva nos, Christe salvator — A. Azéma, W. Hite, R. Morrison
anonyme, 13th c. Alle, psallite, cum luya — A. Azéma, E. Hargis, H. Ledroit, ensemble

L'exil
15. anonyme, 13th c. Gaite de la Tor  [2:40]  W. Hite
16. Conon de BÉTHUNE. Se rage et derverie, strophe 5. Mout est le tere dure  [1:27]  R. Morrison

Tristan et Blanchemains
17. Vienna, lai 13. Lonc tans a que  [1:51]  H. Ledroit
18. Thomas de BRETAGNE | melody: Alfonso el Sabio, 13th c., “Des oge mais”. Ysolt, bele amie  [3:28]  A. von Ramm | CSM 1
19. Vienna, lai 14. A vous, Tristan, amis verai  [2:51]  A. Azéma
20. Marie de FRANCE | melody: Vienna, lai 8, Le lai du chevrefeuille. Assez me plest e bien le voil  [4:45]  E. Hargis

La mort de Tristan
21. Thomas de BRETAGNE | melody: Vienna, lai 16. Senz aïe m'estut murir  [2:56]  H. Ledroit
22. Vienna, lai 1, “Lai mortel”. Ja fis canchonnetes et lais  [3:42]  H. Ledroit

La mort d'Iseult
23. Vienna, lai 2. Li solaus Lluist  [3:32]  A. Azéma
24. Thomas de BRETAGNE | melody: Vienna, lai 8. Epilogue  [0:58]  A. von Ramm






THE BOSTON CAMERATA
Joel Cohen

Henri LEDROIT (haute-contre) — Tristan
Anne AZÉMA (soprano) — Iseult
Ellen HARGIS (soprano) — Brangane
Richard MORRISON (baryton) — Mark / marin / moine
William HITE (tenor) — gardien / marin / moine

Joël Cohen, luths, percussion
Cheryl Ann Fulton, harpe médiévale
David Douglass, rebec, vielle
Carol Lewis, rebec, vielle
Jesse Lepkoff, flûte traversière, flûte à bec

Et

Steven Lundahl, trompette à coulisse et flûte à bec
Dan Stillman, bombarde

Andrea von RAMM — narration





Enregistrement numérique

Enregistrement réalisé en Septembre 1987
Church of the Covenant, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Direction artistique de l'enregistrement: Joël Cohen
Ingénieur du son: David Griesinger
Coordination artistique: Kati Mitchell
Montage: Everett Porter (Sound mirror)

Remerciements/Thanks to Cheryl Fulton and David Douglass
For helping to conceive and prepare the instrumental realizations

Conseiller pour les textes en Ancien Français: Howard Garey
Conseiller pour les textes en Ancien Allemand: Andrea von Ramm
Remerciements/thanks to: the Yale University Language Laboratory

Traduction française: John Underwood
Musical editions, texts, english translations and annotations
© 1987, 1988 Joël Cohen
Deutsche Übersetzung: Maria Mill

Nous remercions pour leur soutien financier:
Ministère des Affaires Etrangères de la République Française,
Boston-Strasbourg Sister City Association
cassette:  MCE 75528
© Erato-Disques S.A. 1989
Recto : Tristan en prose - Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris - fr 112, f° 239 Cl. B.N.
Verso : Joël Cohen - Photo Herb Snitzer



Erato 4509 98482-2 (1995):
Verso : Joël Cohen - Photo Herb Snitzer

THE LEGEND OF TRISTAN AND ISEULT

The story we here narrate for you through original texts and melodies of the Middle Ages is one of the most important monuments of European thought and feeling. The oldest versions of "Tristan" from the Celtic lands of Western Europe (Great Britain, Wales, and French Brittany) were recited by bards and minstrels, and were perhaps never written down; today, they are lost to us.

We do, however, have many beautiful versions of this tale notated in the later Middle Ages. Still, most people today are familiar with the "Tristan" story primarily because of Richard Wagner's great opera, "Tristan and Isolde".

The Camerata has chosen to return to the oldest surviving sources for this program. You will hear some central elements of the story almost exactly as they were narrated in the Middle Ages in Germany and France. In our presentation, certain passages of the narration are spoken; others are sung to melodies of the same period, as was often the case with narrative poetry during the Middle Ages. All the music is drawn from manuscript sources of the early and later medieval period; about half of these songs were already associated with the "Tristan" legend at the time, and the others are closely related in mood and content. We hope thus to bring you, the contemporary public, face-to-face with the incomparable force of the original legend.

A NOTE ON OUR SOURCES

The readings are drawn from:
The Middle High German of Gottfried von Strassburg's "Tristan", written ca. 1210. Line numbers refer to the Ranke- Krohn edition.
The Old French of Thomas de Bretagne's "Tristan", written ca. 1170. Line numbers refer to the Payen edition.

The musical sequences, together with their translations, have been listed in the order of their performance on this recording. "Vienna" refers to our most important musical source for this production, a French-language "Tristan" manuscript, preserved in the Vienna State Library. This source tells a version of the story in prose, interspersing seventeen lais with musical notation at key points in the narrative. The strophic lai was a poetic-musical form closely associated with the Tristan story and the cycle of Arthurian legends in general.

Joël Cohen

Erato 4509 98482-2 (1995)

PRODUCTION HISTORY

At the suggestion of Erato records, Joel Cohen prepared a version of Tristan & Iseult for recording in Boston during the fall of 1987. Henri Ledroit, who was the Tristan of those recording sessions, also participated in the first public performances, in New York and Boston, early in 1988. These were Henri's last appearances before his untimely death that spring. The first European performances took place in the summer of 1989 at Strasbourg, Vaison-la-Romaine, and Lisbon, Portugal.

Erato's recording of Tristan & Iseult won the Grand Prix du Disque shortly after its appearance in early 1989.

Further tours of the production since 1989 have included the Spoleto (U.S.A.) festival, two appearances at the Utrecht (Holland) Festival; two national U.S. tours; Québec; and England. Anne Azéma, who created the role of Iseult for the Erato recording, has continued to interpret the part since the première performances. A number of these tour performances and festival appearances were subsidized by a major grant from the Nakamichi Foundation. The Boston Camerata has been invited to perform Tristan for the inaugural season of the new concert hall in Kyoto, Japan during autumn, 1995.

Joel Cohen

Ce disque est dédié à la mémoire d'Henri Ledroit