FRANÇOIS COUPERIN (1688-1733)
Hyperion Records CDA 67520
This is the third and final CD in Angela Hewitt’s best-selling Couperin series. Here she presents the Thirteenth Ordre (with the colourful variations Les Folies Françoises ou Les Dominos), along with a selection of separate pieces from various suites, including The Nightingale in Love (14th Ordre).
“Hewitt’s dynamic shading and careful ornamentation work together to produce the scintillating musical equivalent of light shining through crystals.” (Toronto Star)
“The crispness and clarity of Hewitt’s performances, especially her apparently effortlessly elegant ornamentation, bring these and all Couperin’s other musical pictures instantly to life.” (Daily Telegraph)
1. Book III: Treizième Ordre Les Lis naissans (2’23)
2. Les Rozeaux (3’01)
3. L’Engageante (2’57)
Les Folies françoises, ou Les Dominos
4. La Virginité sous le Domino couleur d’invisible (0’27)
5. La Pudeur sous le Domino couleur de roze (0’30)
6. L’Ardeur sous le Domino incarnat (0’27)
7. L’Esperance sous le Domino vert (0’25)
8. La Fidélité sous le Domino bleu (0’54)
9. La Persévérance sous le Domino gris de lin (0’30)
10. La Langueur sous le Domino violet (0’57)
11. La Coqueterie sous diférens Dominos (0’21)
12. Les Vieux Galans et les Trésorieres Suranées sous des Dominos pourpres et feuilles mortes (0’39)
13. Les Coucous Bénévoles sous des Dominos jaunes (0’15)
14. La Jalouise Taciturne sous le Domino gris de maure (1’13)
15. La Frénésie, ou le Désespoir sous le Domino noir (0’31)
16. L’Âme-en-peine (3’44)
17. Book III: Quatorzième Ordre Le Rossignol-en-amour (6’16)
18. La Linote-éfarouchée (1’50)
19. Les Fauvétes plaintives (5’24)
20. Le Petit-rien (1’46)
21. Book I: Deuxième Ordre Les Idées heureuses (4’23)
22. Book III: Quinzième Ordre Le Dodo, ou L’Amour au Berçeau (3’57)
23. Book II: Dixième Ordre La Mézangère (4’31)
24. Book III: Dix-neuvième Ordre La Muse-Plantine (2’16)
25. Book I: Quatrième Ordre Le Réveil-matin (2’43)
26. Book I: Troisième Ordre La Favorite (4’22)
27. La Lutine (1’59)
28. Book III: Seizième Ordre La Distraite (1’52)
29. L’Himen-amour (4’58)
30. Book II: Septième Ordre La Ménetou (2’51)
With this third volume Angela Hewitt concludes her personal survey of Couperin’s keyboard music and proves that, in the hands of someone as steeped in Baroque keyboard style as herself, music which was previously thought the exclusive domain of the harpsichordist can be successfully transferred to the modern piano.
Unlike her programming on the previous discs, Hewitt here only plays one complete Ordre – the hugely entertaining 13th with its wicked parody of a debauched masked ball. For the rest, after tackling a group of pieces from the 14th Ordre she chooses, almost as encores to her series, a wide selection of her favourite pieces taken from suites not featured previously.
Recorded in Henry Wood Hall, London, on 8–12 September 2004
“It is simply impossible to do anything but listen when spinning Angela Hewitt’s third, and final, album dedicated to the harpsichord works of François Couperin. This greatest of French baroque keyboard composers (1668-1733) and final “organiste du roi” for Louis XIV has met his match in this extraordinary Canadian pianist….The conviction of this September, 2004 recording should overturn any doubts period-performance sticklers may have about Hewitt using a modern piano instead of the harpsichord.” (Toronto Star)
Buy this record at Hyperion: http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/details/67520.asp
For online sales in Canada, please go to: http://angelahewitt.ca
