French Baroque Music

[Coopmv]

I have to admit being enchanted with Tharaud's Couperin disk this weekend, my first hearing of Couperin on piano.

For me, Couperin's sound is not sweetened but rather, given a different mood that shifts my point of view of the music, in a good way.

I have Couperin's works performed on piano in three volumes by Angela Hewitt.  But it has been a long time since I last listened to those CD's.

[Mandryka]

I have Couperin's works performed on piano in three volumes by Angela Hewitt.  But it has been a long time since I last listened to those CD's.

Well I just listened to her play the 26th order,  Hewitt doesn't use much rubato. So you don't get that slightly disorienting mannerist  effect that you get in the same music played by (e.g.) Blandine Verlet. And  she uses warm colour and dynamics a lot -- Verlet uses colour a lot too, but not as much as Hewitt. The result is that Hewitt sounds refined and beautiful  to me.  Hewitt seemed less sincere than Verlet -- it was as if I was conscious of her showing off the piano, what she can do with the piano, colour, dynamics etc. But Verlet seems a more authentic  and uncalculated outpouring of feeling. L'epineuse is a good example of all of this. Verlet's more soulful and more expressive.

I really wanted to hear Hewitt play the 3rd order, just because I've been enjoying Sempe play it so much and I was wondering how the piano would handle such strange dark music. But as far as I can see she didn't do that one. Is that right?

Have any pianists recorded the preludes?

[milk]

I thought it my duty to add this new release to the thread.

[Wakefield]

I thought it my duty to add this new release to the thread.

Of course, nice addition.

But... is that Couperin or Verlet on the cover? 

[milk]

Of course, nice addition.

But... is that Couperin or Verlet on the cover? 

Yes! That was also my question when I saw it! It's Verlet!

[milk]

Question: What is your favorite recording of the complete set of Rameau's keyboard works? 

[Mandryka]

Yes! That was also my question when I saw it! It's Verlet!

She's getting older like all of us. It's a wonderful pair of CDs I think, the more I listen to it them more I like them.

[Wakefield]

She's getting older like all of us...

Yes, it's right, but that fact doesn't nothing to do with the quality of this portrait: not particularly successful as a faithful representation of Verlet, IMO. If the painter pretended a sort of "hybridization" between Verlet and Couperin, well... it could be considered quite more successful.

[Mandryka]

Here's a photo


By the way a glass of kümmel for the first person who can identify my new avatar. I certainly would be very surprised and pleased to meet someone who knows who that man is.

[Wakefield]

Question: What is your favorite recording of the complete set of Rameau's keyboard works?

I have this set on Brilliant Classics, but it was a bit a disappointment:

[asin]B0037YHOUA[/asin]

I'm quite a fan of Belder; I like a lot his Bach, Scarlatti and Soler, but not this Rameau which, I believe, doesn't have the refinement required by this music.

Currently, I'm waiting for the Rannou set, ordered from Italy and very well recommended on this board by Que. I want to get the solo harpsichord works because regarding the Pièces de clavecin en concerts, I'm quite well served by my favorite version, performed by Rousset, Terakado & Uemura (I also have the single disc by Rannou and her people, but I prefer Rousset et al.). So I will comment when my set arrives from Italy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoqQ_qgrmMQ

[Drasko]

Here's a photo


By the way a glass of kümmel for the first person who can identify my new avatar. I certainly would be very surprised and pleased to meet someone who knows who that man is.

I think I've read that portrait of Verlet is just a portrait she likes very much and they've decided to use it for the disc cover, nothing to do with Couperin particularly.

The avatar is I believe Günter Lamprecht as Franz Biberkopf in Fassbinder's TV adaptation of Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz.

[Coopmv]

Here's a photo


By the way a glass of kümmel for the first person who can identify my new avatar. I certainly would be very surprised and pleased to meet someone who knows who that man is.

I first heard of Blandine Verlet on this CD, which I treasure even if it is not HIP.  This recording was made probably close to 50 years ago ...

[TheGSMoeller]

I have this set on Brilliant Classics, but it was a bit a disappointment:

[asin]B0037YHOUA[/asin]

I'm quite a fan of Belder; I like a lot his Bach, Scarlatti and Soler, but not this Rameau which, I believe, doesn't have the refinement required by this music.

Currently, I'm waiting for the Rannou set, ordered from Italy and very well recommended on this board by Que. I want to get the solo harpsichord works because regarding the Pièces de clavecin en concerts, I'm quite well served by my favorite version, performed by Rousset, Terakado & Uemura (I also have the single disc by Rannou and her people, but I prefer Rousset et al.). So I will comment when my set arrives from Italy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoqQ_qgrmMQ

I just recently purchased Vinikour's new Rameau disc and it's superb. Very tame on many of the tempos, although the Les Cyclopes will have you jumping out of your seat, but beautifully recorded and technically stunning.
Unlike the Belder, the Vinikour omits the Pieces de clavecin en concerts, but I already owned three quality recording of them so I didn't feel as if I was missing out.

[Mandryka]

I think I've read that portrait of Verlet is just a portrait she likes very much and they've decided to use it for the disc cover, nothing to do with Couperin particularly.

The avatar is I believe Günter Lamprecht as Franz Biberkopf in Fassbinder's TV adaptation of Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz.

Help yourself to a glass -- I might have  known it would be you.

I liked the film a lot but the translation in English had a very bad reputation   so I never tried it, and I can't read German. But then someone put me onto a French translation, a new one, and my god, it's a very good book, and Fassbinder is pretty faithful to it (except in the last episode of course)

The scene in that clip is one of my favourite bits of anything, where Franz is talking to the beer and the schnapps.

[Leo K.]

The more I listen to Angela Hewitt’s Rameau on the modern grand, the more I fall in love with the sound. So I decided to explore more Rameau on piano, starting with a broadcast concert of Sokolov.

What other pianist should I seek to hear Rameau played on the piano?

[Mandryka]

The more I listen to Angela Hewitt's Rameau on the modern grand, the more I fall in love with the sound. So I decided to explore more Rameau on piano, starting with a broadcast concert of Sokolov.

What other pianist should I seek to hear Rameau played on the piano?

Cziffra and Meyer certainly, Tharaud by all means. Barto at your own risk.

[Coopmv]

The more I listen to Angela Hewitt's Rameau on the modern grand, the more I fall in love with the sound. So I decided to explore more Rameau on piano, starting with a broadcast concert of Sokolov.

What other pianist should I seek to hear Rameau played on the piano?

I have all three volumes of Couperin on piano by Angela Hewitt.  You may want to check them out as well ...

[Coopmv]

Cziffra and Meyer certainly, Tharaud by all means. Barto at your own risk.

I have the following CD by Barto and it actually is not bad ...

[Coopmv]

I first heard of Blandine Verlet on this CD, which I treasure even if it is not HIP.  This recording was made probably close to 50 years ago ...

What is most interesting about this CD is Blandine Verlet was the only woman on harpsichord - back in those good old days.  The other harpsichordists were Raymond Leppard, Philip Ledger and Andrew Davis, who were conductors but could play harpsichord ...

[The new erato]

Uh...oh....Wanda Landowska?