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D'Anglebert: Suites for Harpsichord / Farr
Naxos

D'Anglebert: Suites for Harpsichord / Farr

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Details

Composer
D'ANGLEBERT, JEAN HENRY
Artist
Elizabeth Farr
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Oct 28, 2008
Catalog #
8570472-73
UPC
747313047277

About



D’ANGLEBERT Harpsichord Suites: No. 1 in G; No. 2 in g; No. 3 in d; No. 4 in D • Elizabeth Farr (hpd) (period instruments) • NAXOS 8.570472 (2 CDs: 134:26)


Jean-Henry D’Anglebert (1629–1691) published only one book of his works, all of it for keyboard instruments, in 1689. It quickly became popular, appearing in a second, probably unauthorized edition, engraved in Amsterdam. Aside from the four suites that Farr has recorded here, it contained 15 dance transcriptions from Lully’s operas, four other transcriptions of anonymous origin, five fugues for organ on the same curiously angular subject, a Quatuor sur le Kyrie for organ, and a treatise on basso continuo. Though the composer wrote in his preface that he hoped to furnish at some future date existing works in other keys, they never found their way into print. More music written by D’Anglebert, however, has turned up in an autograph manuscript entitled Rés 89ter . It is believed to have been written largely in the composer’s hand, and includes 76 pieces, 54 of which are his transcriptions of lute music. Nine are earlier versions of his published works; four in C Major, were possibly meant for a second book; while the rest are pieces by Chambonnieres, Louis Couperin, Marin and Richard Marais.


So what Naxos and Farr have provided here is all of D’Anglebert’s original, extant, and known music for harpsichord, minus the four pieces in C Major. It is almost uniformly of substantial quality, favoring polyphonic mastery and fanciful invention in a lute style brisé over the richer vertical textures and descriptive pieces of other, later French Baroque musicians. It also possesses an expressively melancholy intimacy that brings to mind at times François Couperin.


There are other links to Couperin le Grand, as well. The most important for our purposes was their mutual insistence upon notational faithfulness in performance, without changes to tempo, rhythm, or further ornamentation. Couperin wrote as much in the Preface to his first volume: “I have already added all the necessary ornaments, and I have observed the correct vertical alignment of the notes.” James R. Anthony, in turn, remarked about D’Anglebert’s music in his French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau that “the music is extremely travaillée ,” or worked up in a very detailed fashion. Just how worked up it is can be judged by D’Anglebert’s preface that provided an ornament table with 29 symbols, including some he invented, and many that he employed frequently throughout these pieces. (A copy of this table in Bach’s handwriting survives, indicating that he probably knew D’Anglebert’s work.)


Music as elaborate as this, with its rhetorical flourishes and pauses, could easily become mired in particulars. However, that’s not the case on this recording. Farr is very careful not to lose the forward pulse of the music while phrasing appropriately, as the Allemande in the G-Minor Suite illustrates. Nor does this force her into hectic tempos or rhythmic stiffness. The Courante II in G Minor, for example, shows how she can sustain an almost majestically gliding sense of movement in a piece played on the slow side of adagio (66 bps). Conversely, the Gigue I from the G Major Suite is a fast moderato (116 bps) treated with exceptional metrical flexibility, yet never loses its core dance-like element. It is this knife’s edge balance between rigidity and freeness, clarity of ornamentation and momentum, as much as it is a pursuit of clarity and loving sculpted phrasing that defines Farr’s performance on this release. She does a marvelous job, aided and abetted by a pair of fine instruments crafted by Keith Hill: a fine double manual harpsichord after François Blanchet, and a delicate lute harpsichord created using the description found in Adlung’s posthumously published Musica Mechanica Organoedi (1768).


Though each of these suites has been recorded by one or more harpsichordists other than Farr, I can find no instances of all four available in a single, current release. Byron Schenkman is both vital and distinguished on Centaur 2435, offering the Second Suite and excerpts from both other suites and the lute transcriptions. Céline Frisch is stylish if slightly less relaxed than Farr in the First Suite (minus the Gavotte and Minuet) and the Second on Alpha 74. She has the advantage of offering all five of the fugues, played on the organ, as well as several of the Lully transcriptions and the originals, performed by Café Zimmerman, of which Frisch is a founding member. Neither the Third nor the Fourth Suite is included, however. Barbara Maria Willi offers the First, Third, and Fourth Suites on Musicaphon 56827 (which I have not heard), but foregoes the Second. This makes the current set recommendable even if it weren’t such a delight to hear—which, fortunately, it is.


It only remains to note that the sound on this recording is bright but close, with none of the mechanism noise or over-reverberant hall sounds that sometimes bedevil harpsichord albums. Farr supplies excellent and lengthy notes focusing on the music, while Hill offers some background on both D’Anglebert’s own harpsichord, the instruments we hear, and the practice of ravalement , adding wood to extend either the treble and/or bass of an older instrument.


Full praise to Farr and Naxos for the good they’ve wrought here. Get this if you enjoy French Baroque harpsichord music.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Tracklist 61 tracks

  1. Disc 1
  2. 1 Prelude 02:09
    Track
    1
    Title
    Prelude
    Duration
    02:09
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  3. 2 Allemande 03:51
    Track
    2
    Title
    Allemande
    Duration
    03:51
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  4. 3 Courante I 02:24
    Track
    3
    Title
    Courante I
    Duration
    02:24
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  5. 4 Double de la Courante I 02:34
    Track
    4
    Title
    Double de la Courante I
    Duration
    02:34
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  6. 5 Courante II 02:32
    Track
    5
    Title
    Courante II
    Duration
    02:32
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  7. 6 Courante III 02:21
    Track
    6
    Title
    Courante III
    Duration
    02:21
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  8. 7 Sarabande 03:19
    Track
    7
    Title
    Sarabande
    Duration
    03:19
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  9. 8 Gigue I 02:49
    Track
    8
    Title
    Gigue I
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  10. 9 Gigue II 01:58
    Track
    9
    Title
    Gigue II
    Duration
    01:58
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  11. 10 Galliarde 04:31
    Track
    10
    Title
    Galliarde
    Duration
    04:31
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  12. 11 Chaconne Rondeau 04:24
    Track
    11
    Title
    Chaconne Rondeau
    Duration
    04:24
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  13. 12 Gavotte 02:07
    Track
    12
    Title
    Gavotte
    Duration
    02:07
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  14. 13 Menuet 02:17
    Track
    13
    Title
    Menuet
    Duration
    02:17
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  15. 14 Prelude 01:53
    Track
    14
    Title
    Prelude
    Duration
    01:53
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  16. 15 Allemande 03:54
    Track
    15
    Title
    Allemande
    Duration
    03:54
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  17. 16 Courante I 02:04
    Track
    16
    Title
    Courante I
    Duration
    02:04
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  18. 17 Courante II 02:33
    Track
    17
    Title
    Courante II
    Duration
    02:33
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  19. 18 Sarabande 02:46
    Track
    18
    Title
    Sarabande
    Duration
    02:46
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  20. 19 Gigue 02:51
    Track
    19
    Title
    Gigue
    Duration
    02:51
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  21. 20 Gaillarde 03:49
    Track
    20
    Title
    Gaillarde
    Duration
    03:49
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  22. 21 Passacaille 06:52
    Track
    21
    Title
    Passacaille
    Duration
    06:52
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  23. Disc 2
  24. 1 Prelude 05:08
    Track
    1
    Title
    Prelude
    Duration
    05:08
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  25. 2 Allemande 03:58
    Track
    2
    Title
    Allemande
    Duration
    03:58
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  26. 3 Courante I 01:58
    Track
    3
    Title
    Courante I
    Duration
    01:58
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  27. 4 Double de la Courante I 02:10
    Track
    4
    Title
    Double de la Courante I
    Duration
    02:10
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  28. 5 Courante II 02:47
    Track
    5
    Title
    Courante II
    Duration
    02:47
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  29. 6 Sarabande grave 03:12
    Track
    6
    Title
    Sarabande grave
    Duration
    03:12
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  30. 7 Sarabande 03:19
    Track
    7
    Title
    Sarabande
    Duration
    03:19
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  31. 8 Gigue 02:43
    Track
    8
    Title
    Gigue
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  32. 9 Gaillarde 04:36
    Track
    9
    Title
    Gaillarde
    Duration
    04:36
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  33. 10 Gavotte 02:37
    Track
    10
    Title
    Gavotte
    Duration
    02:37
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  34. 11 Menuet 02:36
    Track
    11
    Title
    Menuet
    Duration
    02:36
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  35. 12 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 1 00:54
    Track
    12
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 1
    Duration
    00:54
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  36. 13 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 2 00:28
    Track
    13
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 2
    Duration
    00:28
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  37. 14 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 3 00:30
    Track
    14
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 3
    Duration
    00:30
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  38. 15 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 4 00:30
    Track
    15
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 4
    Duration
    00:30
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  39. 16 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 5 00:30
    Track
    16
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 5
    Duration
    00:30
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  40. 17 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 6 00:29
    Track
    17
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 6
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  41. 18 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 7 00:30
    Track
    18
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 7
    Duration
    00:30
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  42. 19 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 8 00:30
    Track
    19
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 8
    Duration
    00:30
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  43. 20 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 9 00:28
    Track
    20
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 9
    Duration
    00:28
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  44. 21 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 10 00:29
    Track
    21
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 10
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  45. 22 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 11 00:31
    Track
    22
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 11
    Duration
    00:31
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  46. 23 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 12 00:31
    Track
    23
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 12
    Duration
    00:31
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  47. 24 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 13 00:29
    Track
    24
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 13
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  48. 25 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 14 00:52
    Track
    25
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 14
    Duration
    00:52
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  49. 26 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 15 00:29
    Track
    26
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 15
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  50. 27 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 16 00:29
    Track
    27
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 16
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  51. 28 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 17 00:28
    Track
    28
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 17
    Duration
    00:28
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  52. 29 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 18 00:29
    Track
    29
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 18
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  53. 30 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 19 00:29
    Track
    30
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 19
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  54. 31 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 20 00:33
    Track
    31
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 20
    Duration
    00:33
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  55. 32 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 21 00:29
    Track
    32
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 21
    Duration
    00:29
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  56. 33 Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 22 00:37
    Track
    33
    Title
    Variations sur les folies d'Espagne: Couplet 22
    Duration
    00:37
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  57. 34 Allemande 03:54
    Track
    34
    Title
    Allemande
    Duration
    03:54
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  58. 35 Courante I 02:12
    Track
    35
    Title
    Courante I
    Duration
    02:12
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  59. 36 Courante II 02:26
    Track
    36
    Title
    Courante II
    Duration
    02:26
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  60. 37 Sarabande 02:48
    Track
    37
    Title
    Sarabande
    Duration
    02:48
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  61. 38 Gigue 02:10
    Track
    38
    Title
    Gigue
    Duration
    02:10
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  62. 39 Chaccone Rondeau 04:54
    Track
    39
    Title
    Chaccone Rondeau
    Duration
    04:54
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr
  63. 40 Tombeau de Monsieur de Chambonnieres 05:01
    Track
    40
    Title
    Tombeau de Monsieur de Chambonnieres
    Duration
    05:01
    Composer
    Jean Henri D'Anglebert
    Performer
    Elizabeth Farr