While usually associated with sacred music, the organ was also used during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods in noble mansions and courts for the purpose of secular music. This fantastic anthology peeks into the secular organ repertoire from royal courts across five countries. Francesco Cera is a celebrated Italian organist. He performs on a 1772 “Organo ottavino.” Liner notes include information on all pieces, as well as a photo of Cera’s organ.

This new album of haprsichordist Catalina Vicens is a unique, multifaceted musical and poetic project. First, it features music from Naples, Italy from around 1525, the year when the instrument that she plays was actually built in Naples. Secondly, Ms. Vicens conceived an imaginary tale of the life and story of that very instrument, partly based on historical facts, partly on poetic inspiration emerging from her encounter with this priceless treasure of a historical harpsichord. The album comes with a free audiobook download of that same story, narrated by Ms. Vicens herself and accompanied with original music from the disc.

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.'

Recorded in: St Bartholemew's Church, Orford, Suffolk 11-13 December 1995 Producer(s) Gary Cole Sound Engineer(s) Gary Cole Richard Smoker (Assistant)

REVIEW

Yates shows lots of vivacity as well as the crisp neatness we have come to expect of her. The finale of the Italian Concerto, for example, simply bubbles with joyousness, as does the exuberant bravura A major Sonata by Scarlatti. She is admirably precise in the Rameau gavotte and variations, direct and simple in Le coucou, brings real brio to the Courante of the Handel suite (she treats its Allemande rather freely); her performance of the unusually shaped C major Sonata by Scarlatti – a quiet pastoral followed by rural bagpiping and then noisy revelry – is excellent. But to me one of the highlights of her recital is Duphly’s superb melancholy rondeau: I have heard it played with greater gravitas, but it is entirely convincing in her hands; and the much-employed low register of her Goujon-type harpsichord sounds very fine.

--Gramophone

Claude-Bénigne Balbastre, the French composer, organist, and harpsichordist, was one of the most famous musicians of his time. His suite of pieces from 1759 is here performed by Sophie Yates on a harpsichord specially chosen for the repertoire, a double manual instrument built by Andrew Garlick in 1996. It is a copy of a French harpsichord by Jean- Claude Goujon, made in Paris in 1748, which today forms part of the collection of the Musée de la Musique at the Conservatoire de Paris. Sophie Yates has made a series of solo CDs for Chandos, many of which have won international awards. She has been described by Gramophone as 'hugely talented' and by BBC Music as playing 'with exceptional poise'. In the eighteenth century, aristocratic or, ideally, royal patronage was the undisputed key to an artist's success. In the case of Balbastre, the young composer was quickly and efficiently introduced to the Parisian musical circles and high society by no less a figure than Jean-Philippe Rameau, and made a brilliant career. He played at the Concert Spirituel until 1782, became organist of the Notre-Dame cathedral and of the Chapelle Royale, harpsichordist to the French royal court where he taught Queen Marie Antoinette, and organist to Louis-Stanislav Xavier, Count of Provence, later Louis XVIII, King of France. His fame grew so great that the archbishop of Paris had to forbid Balbastre to play at Saint Roch during certain services, because the church drew excessive crowds whenever he played. Because of his royal patronage, Balbastre developed a compositional style that displayed strong elements of nobility and grandeur, but there was also a great deal of exuberance, which meant that his works were commonly regarded as more popular than intellectual. The music on this recording takes the form of descriptive 'pièces de charactère'. Some of them - 'La Suzanne', for example - require a sparkling virtuosity, whilst others, such as 'La Berville', calls for the sensitivity to create a supple line. The title Giga at the top of 'La Lugeac' is a clue to its Italianate vigour, and its infectious spirit shows off Balbastre's gift for the common touch. 'La d'Hericourt' and 'La de Caze' are more noble and traditional. By contract, the pastoral style, so very popular in eighteenth-century France, is clearly heard in the socalled Air Champêtre, 'La Castlemore'. This collection of pieces was composed at the time when Balbastre was enjoying his greatest success in Paris, just before the old regime and all that went with it came to a dramatic end. It embodies the last flowering of the French harpsichord repertoire.

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.