SUITE D’UN GOÛT ÉTRANGER

In 1717, Marin Marais composed his fourth book of pieces for viola da gamba and basso continuo.  The musician is one of the most famous French violists and viola da gamba teachers. He retired little by little from the court after the death of King Louis XIV. Freed from his royal obligations, Marais Marais may benefit from greater freedom as a composer and then enters his period of artistic maturity. This penultimate collection devoted to the viola da gamba is perhaps one of his most important works. The heart of the book consists of 33 pieces of characters, mysteriously collected under the title: Suite of a foreign taste. It is from this suite that are extracted some of the most famous pieces of Marin Marais (Le Labyrinthe, Le Badinage, L'Arabesque or La Rêveuse). If we were to define the French art of the viola da gamba only through a single collection, we could without fear make reference to the Suite of foreign taste. The rooms of this suite alone have forged part of the French identity of the viola da gamba: they are the culminating point of Marais' work and the French repertoire for viola da gamba.