Couperin: Lecons de tenebres / Theatre of Early Music
BIS
CD
$21.99Jan 01, 2005
Close your eyes, and try to imagine: 300 years ago, in a very dark, forbidding church, the service goes on and on. Fifteen candles are extinguished, one by one, at the closing of each psalm. Shadows enfold the congregation, and in the midst of this eerie backdrop, two high voices sing their lament. The music is solemn, pure, and deeply moving.
Beautiful? Most certainly. But also very distant from our own busy, frivolous reality.
Unlike a lot of the Baroque repertoire, these are pieces that require getting used to, or at least the willingness to spend some tranquil time immersed in a world of devotion. So be prepared: this is not music that grabs you right away, that makes you feel like singing or dancing. But for all who need to pray (religiousness aside!), this might be just the right Easter gift (the careful production by BIS is an added bonus: excellent liner notes by Jean-Paul Vachon, sound engineering that effectively captures the aural atmosphere of a church, and apt graphic design).
Originally, the Tenebrae lessons for the Holy Week were intended to arouse feelings of the deepest contrition. Held in the middle of the night (at around 3 :00 am), when darkness was complete (hence the Tenebrae), the lessons were sung to very sad texts attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, as part of a mass performed with great dramatic flair, including the flickering light of candles which were then put out, symbolizing Jesus?s abandonment by his apostles. But humanity is mundane, of course. Little by little, the ceremony gained more earthly overtones. First, it was held at a more convenient time?in the afternoon. Then it became a showcase for the famous singers of the day, who could thus show off their piousness (and their beautiful tone!) to a very large audience.
In the 18th century, many important composers wrote versions of Leçons. Couperin´s remaining three pieces (of a group of nine) are the best known nowadays, and with good reason. In the intimate setting of a chamber work, Couperin achieves what a more grandiose-minded composer might not have: to convey true solitude, true repentance, and true sorrow.
For a long time, Couperin?s Leçons de ténèbres remained the province of the aficionado. In the past decades, however, they seem to have gained a surprising popularity, and some beautiful recordings have come to light, including excellent ones by Gerard Lesne/Steve Dugardin and James Bowman/Michael Chance, which, as in the present version by Theatre of Early Music, also resort to the unusual voices of two countertenors (normally, the leçons are sung by two sopranos). The advantage: a darker tone, sweeter and less lyrical, without the sharper edge we find so often in women?s voices. This, in itself, would be a point of interest. Notwithstanding the tough competition, the Theatre of Early Music holds its own, and manages to create a very moving rendering of the work, as well as of the sublime Magnificat included in the package. Both singers are first-rate, and although their individuality is always retained, their voices blend beautifully. Blaze and Taylor show their intimacy with the style?no mechanical vibrato here, or extravagant feats of virtuosity. They sing with simplicity and fluency, and with an austerity that fits the text without ever becoming frigid. The accompanying instrumentalists are equally masterful and discreet, each calmly serving the music.
For a long time, theologians spent their days discussing the sex of the angels. After hearing this CD, I am inclined to agree with those who held that heavenly creatures must have been male.
With this disc London Baroque and BIS are continuing a very successful collaboration which has so far resulted in six releases. On this present disc London Baroque turn their eyes and ears to François Couperin, also known as 'le Grand'. But this CD also invokes two other Baroque giants, namely Corelli and Lully. The main works are the two Apothéoses, in which Couperin portrays the ascent to Parnassus of his two great predecessors. Apart from them being intended as compliments to the composers, one might see in the works - and especially in L'Apothéoses de Lulli - an attempt to advocate and create a fusion of the French style with the Italian, which during the early 17th century was all the rage in Paris. This is music with a history indeed - performed in the ever fresh manner of London Baroque.
Couperin: Les muses Naissantes / Sailly, De Negri, La Chambre Claire
Ricercar
CD
$20.99Feb 23, 2018
This reverie offered by Brice Sailly in homage to François Couperin is presented in the guise of a trip to Arcadia, that utopian land which lies hidden in the heart of European geography. The selected harpsichord pieces, most of them evoking childhood and the birth of love, sit beside excerpts from the Concerts royaux that set the scene rather as Watteau might have done, leaving to the less well-known airs de cour the task of describing sentiments in words. Couperin discreetly whispers the most luminous of truths. Here all is benevolence, a smile on the lips, a light heart, and melancholy is gently dismissed in favor of consolation. Open to various musical activities, Brice Sailly is a member and founder of the Franco-Icelandic group Susser Trost and has done projects with many artists, from early music specialists to musicians of the electronic music scene.
Armand-Louis Couperin was the nephew of François Couperin, and part of a family which was the dominant musical dynasty in France for around two hundred and fifty years. The music of the younger Couperin is difficult to categorize, since he was writing at a time between the decorative aesthetic of the high baroque and the beginning of the true classical style. Sophie Yates relishes the music of this period, for to her, contained in the rococo period are the elements of the baroque, classical and even romantic styles in embryo, making, she says, 'a rich and unpredictable mixture of delights.'
Couperin: The Complete Pieces de Clavecin, Vol. 4 / Kroll
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Jun 01, 2018
This is Volume 4 in Centaur's integral edition of the Complete Pieces de Clavecin of Francois Couperin, performed on harpsichord by Mark Kroll. Mark Kroll has made a specialty of Couperin throughout his long and distinguished career. Mark Kroll has performed on four continents as a harpsichordist and fortepianist, in both solo recital and as a collaborative chamber musician. Highlights include an appearance as the official guest of the city of Barcelona; featured soloist in Germany’s Regensburg Early Music Festival, France’s Festival Ambronay and the Bordeaux Hummel Festival; two concerts for the Czech Republic’s Prague Spring Festival; and recitals at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation, Rome’s Conservatorio Santa Caecilia and Associazione Musicale Romana, Poland’s Dni Bachowski, and Slovenija’s Radovljica Festival. This recording was made on a 1974 William Dowd harpsichord at Brooks Concert Hall, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, and a 1769 Pascal Taskin harpsichord in the private instrument collection of Marlowe A. Sigal, Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
This is the third volume of Centaur's integral edition of the complete Pieces de Clavecin of Francois Couperin, performed on harpsichord by Mark Kroll, who has made a specialty of this literature. Mark Kroll has been acclaimed as one of the world’s leading harpsichordists and fortepianists. During a career spanning more than fifty years, he has performed on four continents, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity. He has appeared with noted soloists and ensembles, played under the batons of conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Kurt Masur and Charles Dutoit, and has served as harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony since 1979.
Couperin: Complete Pieces de clavecin, Vol. 5 / Kroll
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Feb 02, 2018
This is volume 5 in Centaur's recording of the complete Pieces de Clavecin, performed on harpsichord by Mark Kroll. Mark Kroll has made a specialty of Couperin throughout his long and distinguished career. Mark Kroll has performed on four continents as a harpsichordist and fortepianist, in both solo recital and as a collaborative chamber musician. Highlights include an appearance as the official guest of the city of Barcelona; featured soloist in Germany’s Regensburg Early Music Festival, France’s Festival Ambronay and the Bordeaux Hummel Festival; two concerts for the Czech Republic’s Prague Spring Festival; and recitals at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation, Rome’s Conservatorio Santa Caecilia and Associazione Musicale Romana, Poland’s Dni Bachowski, and Slovenija’s Radovljica Festival. This recording was made on a 1978 Franco-Flemish style double manual harpsichord by William Hyman and D. Jacques Way at the Harpsichord Clearing House, Rehobeth, Massachusetts.
Though Couperin was a contemporary of J.S. Bach his fashionable life at Versailles could serve to make that great German seem quite stodgy. Always at the forefront of taste Couperin's trendsetting is nowhere more evident than in his Les Nations an overtly French set of trio pieces played stylishly here by Musica ad Rhenum with Jed Wentz.
Couperin F.: Complete Published Trios For Two Harpsichords
Brilliant Classics
CD
$17.99Dec 06, 2019
François Couperin (1689-1755) 'Couperin le Grand' was a master of the Baroque era, and this release offers us a fresh recording his chef-d'oeuvres: the harpsichord trios. Couperin was born into a musical family. He followed in his father's footsteps as organist at the Saint-Gervais Church in Paris, and before long his musical talent led him to the court of King Louis XIV. His appointment as court musician introduced him to a network of composers, with whom he regularly corresponded and shared ideas. Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, greatly admired his volumes of harpsichord music. L'Apothéose de Lully and L'Apothéose de Corelli open this set and are among the earliest examples of programme music. The former is dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) who had defined the sound of French Baroque music, while L'Apothéose de Corelli pays homage to the Italian virtuoso, Antonio Corelli (1653-1713). The pieces depict the esteemed composers reaching the summit of Mount Parnassus. Then, guided by the God Apollo, they merge the French and Italian styles. Relations between Italy and France had soured following the Spanish War of Succession and the scramble to claim new territory, but Couperin's piece favors integration over individualism, as each composer's style compliments the other, raising the music to divine greatness. Les Nations follows in this vein, as it draws influence from both styles, featuring Corelli-inspired forms with alternating slow and quick tempos as opposed to the French-style suites of dances. It was dedicated to France, Spain, the German Empire and to Piedmont, part of the newly reformed Kingdom of Sardinia. In the wider context, Couperin's music is tinged with political ideology as he paints a picture of harmony flourishing from European unity. Couperin's pioneering music has inspired composers for generations; a century after his death, Johannes Brahms was programming Couperin's keyboard works on his concerts, and Maurice Ravel paid homage to the composer in Le tombeau de Couperin.
Although Couperin is best known today as a composer of harpsichord music, he remained deeply involved in chamber music throughout his career. Les Nations is a vast project in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe – France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont – and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata, with its free-form virtuosity, and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite. Juilliard Baroque brings together some of the world’s most respected and accomplished early music instrumentalists for this invigorating program.
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Review:
All eight players are totally absorbed in the style. Their often dense ornamentation never sounds calculated or contrived; their rhythmic flow in slower movements has a captivating insouciance, relaxed, gently fluid. This is French playing that would be hard to better.
Although we usually associate Masses with vocal music, these solo organ works by a very young François Couperin (published in 1690) are examples of a form and style common to the place and time--one that included the organ as a significant part of the celebration of Mass, either replacing or enhancing sections of the spoken liturgy. The producers of this outstanding recording--presented in vivid, palpably realistic sound on two CDs--have chosen to include only the organ's contributions to these services, wisely eliminating the interspersed plainchant passages that would have occurred in a normal service.
While the purely musical rewards of this recital are many--Couperin exhibits an impressive range of formal/structural technical mastery, particularly regarding counterpoint and use of texture, register, and articulation for expressive/dramatic effect--organ enthusiasts will absolutely want to hear this for the commanding presence of the organ itself. The well-preserved, minimally altered 18th-century François-Henri Clicquot organ at Poitiers Cathedral is one of the world's treasures, and its indisputably authentic French credentials are on full display here, particularly regarding the assertive, rich-colored reeds (the 16' bombarde pedal stop is a treat!) and lively, lustrous winds. Organist Jean-Baptiste Robin knows this instrument well and delightfully exploits its multifarious voices (if only we had a list of the registrations he uses on each track) while making sure we hear the important inner lines and plainchant themes. If you love organ music, don't miss this--and don't be afraid to turn it up! --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
