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Reviewer: Bertil
van Boer Louis Couperin is one of the members of the famous Couperin family who almost dominated keyboard music during the 17th century. They rose to prominence because they were not involved in the theatrical world of Louis XIV. Louis Couperin was a polymath who composed as well as performed on keyboard instruments and the viol. During his lifetime he was recognized as one of the major talents in Paris, and his corpus of over 200 works includes fine examples of the Baroque keyboard suite. This disc takes three suites plus a few extraneous movements from a collection owned by Bauyn d’Angervilliers that contains a selection of works by Couperin, Johann Froberger, and Jacques Chambonnières, the last of who was a mentor of sorts. Here the beginning work, the Suite in D Minor, shows a talented and professional composer completely adept at the compositional styles inherent in all of the dance movements. The jauntiness of the Canaries displays a nice sense of rhythm, while the lengthy Prelude is solemn and reflective, almost improvisatory. Here one is reminded of Bach’s organ preludes, though musically less chromatic. The Suite in G Minor begins with a gentle Allemande, and ends with a Passacaille that moves slowly and deliberately through the ostinato variations, like thick molasses. On the other hand, the Suite in A Major has an ethereal prelude, with each chord and arpeggio strung out in harp-like fashion. The Courante that follows is lively but not overly driving. Thereupon follow a pair of Sarabandes, each of which is thoughtful and reflective, pensive and yet not effete. The final Gigue is studied, not raucous as gigues usually are. I’d like to say that the works on this disc represent Couperin’s own sense of refined taste to enhance the “dramatic structure” and “color shifts,” as pianist Pavel Kolesnikov states in the booklet notes. This is as may be, but I suppose he refers to the various additional stray movements, such as the Chaconne in G Minor. I don’t find that the increase in tension is immediately apparent, given the cautious and deliberate performance by Kolesnikov. His interpretation seems rather more 19th century traditional than Baroque, but perhaps that is because these are being performed (even with extensive ornamentation) on a modern piano. Given that just last year Couperin’s complete works for harpsichord were released on a two-disc set by Karen Flint on Plectra, following a 2011 set by Richard Egarr on Harmonia Mundi, one has a sense of his original intentions already on the instruments the composer would have recognized. Both of these sets are good representative examples of his compositional technique, so one is hard pressed to discover what Kolesnikov brings to the table, save to redo them on a modern instrument. I am not being particular; Bach, for example, can play well on the piano, and his sometimes interesting phrasing does make a case that they can be done on it as well. But I find the interpretations cautious and more pensive than the music itself requires, more Romantic than Baroque. So, if you want to hear what it sounds like on a modern piano this might do, but those acquainted with the needs of Baroque performance practice may want to look elsewhere. | |
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