Marin Marais published his last collection in 1725, eight years after the appearance of his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole . He was no longer playing in the Chambre du Roi by that time and had moved to a house in the Faubourg Saint-Marceau where he cultivated plants and flowers in his garden. He continued, however, to give lessons to people who wanted to improve their viol playing. The Cinquième Livre de Pièces de Viole reflects this image of a peaceful life; today we regard it as the final testament of a musician who was looking back upon his past years as their undisputed master — and which he remains today.

Between the publication of the Second Book in 1701 and that of the Third Book, ten years went by, during which Marais established himself as a composer of “tragédies lyriques”. In the meantime, however, a number of young viol players, some of whom had been his pupils, had just published their first collections of pièces de viole. Marais therefore had to reaffirm his position as the reigning master of the genre, a mission accomplished to perfection with this new opus, in which he strove to offer his public easier pieces alongside others that of a more demanding nature, in order to ‘satisfy those who are more advanced upon the viol’. His style had changed too: here, character pieces form an increasingly important complement to the traditional suites.

As a prelude to the vast enterprise represented by the release of Marin Marais’ complete five Books of Pièces de Viole, François Joubert-Caillet proposes this anthology of some of the most famous pieces that the illustrious gambist of La Chambre du Roi wrote for the delight of the Sun King’s private concerts. François Joubert-Caillet studied the viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Paolo Pandolfo, with whom he also studied early improvisation, and also with Rudolf Lutz. Winner of the First and Audience Prizes at the Bruges International Chamber Music Competition, he gives concerts, recitals and master classes in Europe, Asia and Latin America. François Joubert-Caillet also directs L’Achéron, an ensemble with which he appears in various formations, in particular the consort of viols. L’Achéron’s CDs, devoted to Anthony Holborne’s The Fruit of Love and Samuel Scheidt’s Ludi Musici, were released by Ricercar for which François Joubert-Caillet also recorded an album in duo with Wieland Kuijken: Johanes Schenck’s Le Nymphe di Rheno.