A veteran of Jordi Savall's Hespèrion XX and XXI, gambaist Marianne Muller makes her Zig Zag Territories debut with this disc of music by the great French Baroque composer Marin Marais. The repertoire is daunting: the ingenious and evocative Le Labyrinthe, the 32 virtuoso variations on Les Folies d'Espagne, and the 12-movement Suite in E minor from Marais' Second Book of Pièces de viole. These are works that require not just virtuosity, stamina, intense expressivity, and soulful beauty of tone.

Works by Gabriel Fauré and Richard Wagner aren't usually mentioned in the same breath, though an astute listener will easily understand why they are brought together for this late Romantic program. The lush and atmospheric harmonies and languorous melodies of Fauré's Pelléas et Mélisande, the Élégie, and his songs sort well with the benign lyricism and yearning chromaticism of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, a serenade based on themes from the music drama, Siegfried. Indeed, this album demonstrates how pervasive Wagner's influence was, that even the classically calm and composed Fauré could not resist its expressive possibilities.

Gabriel Fauré originally wrote his song cycle, La Bonne chanson, for voice and piano, but a few years after its 1894 premiere he created a version with string quintet and piano. He later questioned the wisdom of having made the arrangement, thinking perhaps he was gilding the lily by adding even more sumptuous timbral richness to a work that was already so melodically and harmonically sensuous. Few listeners are likely to complain about his arrangement, though, particularly when it is performed as well as it is here, with mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes and members of Ensemble Contraste. Deshayes has a relatively light lyric voice that still has enough fullness to put across the romantic ardor of the music and the poetry.

This VIVALDI/CORELLI/BEYER collection groups interpretations by Amandine Beyer and the ensemble Gli Incogniti of major works by two Italian composers: Vivaldi and Corelli. Here again, Amandine Beyer demonstrates her exceptional talent as both a violinist and ‘bandleader’, giving these works, which illustrate the art of the concerto at the beginning of the 18thcentury, a certain Italian vocal quality in a particularly felicitous and invigorating interpretation.