Doulce Mémoire & Denis Raisin-Dadre - Madrigali diminuiti (2016) [Hi-Res]

Ensemble Doulce Mémoire (Sweet Memory Ensemble) is a Renaissance "broken consort," that is, a group of instruments from various families, plus voices. Its founder is Denis Raisin-Dadre. Dadre is a flutist specializing in the recorder and other ancient members of the flute family. He studied in Lyon, Geneva, and Paris, earning a bachelor's degree in musicology, and then worked as an orchestral musician and joined the flute trio I Dilettanti.

He founded the Doulce Mémoire group in Paris with a view to creating an ensemble diverse enough in instrumentation and flexible enough in performing skills to re-create a panoramic view of the kinds of music-making that took place in courts of the 15th and 16th centuries. For the sake of historical perspective he chose the court of King Francis I as the focus of his group's repertory, and chose members who all had experience and training in their ancient instruments, in correct period performing style, and in doing research into the era.

The group concerns itself exclusively with the Renaissance. It presents programs that it likens to "Renaissance frescoes," sometimes illustrating or enacting events with the music contemporaneous or otherwise suitable to the subject. For instance, among its programs are "La Dive Bouteille," a kind of Renaissance cabaret show, a Requiem for King Henry IV, Psalms of the French Reformed Church, and a set of Carnival music from the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. It was particularly praised for a stage presentation of Renaissance music reenacting the Biblical story of Susanna and the Elders.

Ensemble Doulce Mémoire has worked with dance groups to present re-creations of royal balls. It records for the French record label Astrée and the American audiophile label Dorian, and has received leading recording awards such as the Diapason D'or, Choc de la musique, Milia D'or of Cannes, and ffff de Télérama. The recording of the Requiem des Rois de France of Eustache Du Caurroy (Astrée E 8660) was the newspaper Le Monde's pick for classical record of the year and also won the Grand Prix de l'académie Charles Cros. After the ensemble was founded, Dadre received an appointment to teach in the Department of Ancient Music at the National Conservatory of the Region of Tours. Ensemble Doulce Mémoire is, accordingly, now based there.