Couperin: L’art de toucher le clavecin – preludes 2 & 3; Les nations, troisième ordre (L’impériale) &quatrième ordre (La piémontoise); treizième concert à deux instrumens à l’unisson

COMPOSERS: Couperin
LABELS: Chandos
ALBUM TITLE: F Couperin: Les nations, Vol. 2
WORKS: L’art de toucher le clavecin – preludes 2 & 3; Les nations, troisième ordre (L’impériale) &quatrième ordre (La piémontoise); treizième concert à deux instrumens à l’unisson
PERFORMER: Purcell Quartet; Rebeka Rusó (bass viol)
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 0729
This second disc completes the

Purcell Quartet’s recording of

Les nations. Couperin’s umbrella title shelters four suites of dances,

each of which is prefaced by an

Italianate trio sonata. The earlier

disc contained the first two suites

or ‘ordres’ as Couperin called them,

La Françoise and L’Espagnole. The

present one features L’ impériale

and La piémontoise. Three of the

opening trio sonatas are reworkings

by Couperin of earlier pieces; but

the greater fluency of that which

introduces L’ impériale, together

with the fact that no earlier sources

are known, suggests a later date of

composition. The collection was

published in 1726.

These are attractive works

whose idiom nonetheless often

eludes convincing performance.

Couperin was a stickler for detail

and was meticulous in matters of

ornamentation. The Purcell

Quartet have taken trouble over

this and the results are rewarding.

A rapprochement of national musical

styles was an issue of importance,

though in varying degrees to most

later Baroque composers, and

Couperin’s quest for a ‘goût réuni’

– combining Italian with French

styles – is frequently evidenced in his

chamber music even if, as here, it is

sometimes as much by juxtaposition

as by synthesis. The Purcell Quartet

gives stylish performances that are

elegant and assured. In addition

to the suites of Les nations, the disc

features two of the eight preludes for

harpsichord from Couperin’s didactic

work L’art de toucher le clavecin, and

the 13th Concert from his Nouveaux

Concerts of 1724. Nicholas Anderson