COMPOSERS: Couperin
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: Concerts royaux
PERFORMER: Barthold Kuijken, Frans Brüggen (flute), Jürg Schaeftlein (oboe), Milan Turkovic (bassoon), Sigiswald Kuijken (violin, bass viol), Janine Rubinlicht (violin), Wieland Kuijken (bass viol), Robert Kohnen (harpsichord)
CATALOGUE NO: SBK 60370 ADD Reissue (1973)
Critical opinion was divided when these performances of Couperin’s four Concerts royaux were first issued in the mid-Seventies. The gestures which we now take for granted in French Baroque music, and which characterise the Kuijkens’ approach, struck some ears as overly mannered a quarter of a century ago. Few listeners will think so now, though the playing itself is variable in tonal security, with a lamentably flat-pitched oboe conspicuous, above all, in the Allemande and Gavotte of the Premier Concert. The frequent change of instrumental colour from movement to movement offers a somewhat restless, indecisive picture of this intrinsically satisfying music, but few will be other than delighted by the measured gait of the Forlane, which concludes the Quatrième Concert. Nicholas Anderson
Couperin: Concerts royaux
Critical opinion was divided when these performances of Couperin’s four Concerts royaux were first issued in the mid-Seventies. The gestures which we now take for granted in French Baroque music, and which characterise the Kuijkens’ approach, struck some ears as overly mannered a quarter of a century ago. Few listeners will think so now, though the playing itself is variable in tonal security, with a lamentably flat-pitched oboe conspicuous, above all, in the Allemande and Gavotte of the Premier Concert.
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:34 pm