Louis Couperin: Complete Keyboard Works [Box set, Import]

This 4-disc set brings us the complete harpsichord music of Louis Couperin. It's an ambitious undertaking by Richard Egarr and Harmonia Mundi, some of which may well come as a revelation even to baroque fans already familiar with the music of the period. In his booklet notes Mr. Egarr makes bold claims for the quality of the music and for Louis Couperin's place in keyboard history - claims which, I suspect, you will readily swallow only if you've never heard of Byrd, Sweelinck, Cabezón, D'Anglebert, Handel or Louis' nephew François, let alone JSB. That is, until you've heard these discs - because, as very soon becomes evident, this is imaginative, original and deeply thoughtful music and, especially as performed here by Richard Egarr, a delight to both ear and spirit.

The 140 or so pieces left by Louis can be arranged into suites at the player's discretion and this is what Egarr has done, resulting here in around twenty suites - in the French style, obviously. Typically, each one opens with a free-ranging Prélude, followed by a number of dance movements such as allemande, courante and sarabande and often ending with a chaconne or passacaille. But make no mistake, in no way is this music routine, formulaic or predictable. A sampling of the very first suite on CD 1, in C major, will be enough to reveal the qualities of both Couperin's music and Egarr's performance - from the opening Prélude, played with insight, freedom and delicacy, and through the various dance movements, the music is touching, contemplative, imbued with deep inner thought and feeling. The suite ends with a Chaconne, one of many magnificent examples of the genre in this collection; Egarr's playing is quite captivating here - enhanced by the gentlest of hesitations and the subtlest of rubato, this is keyboard music and interpretation of the very highest quality.

Another suite well worth sampling would be that in F major at the beginning of the third CD. Here again, the Prélude takes many unexpected turns in the course of its sinuous progress, with Egarr's beautifully judged embellishments and gentle rubato in the dance movements constantly enhancing the sense of the unexpected. The soulful sequence of Sarabandes begins with a deceptively simple melody, and is followed by the short and cheerful uplift of the Gigue. Then comes a truly beautiful Chaconne - my favourite piece in this whole set in fact, if I had to choose one - its dark solemnity belying its major key, with Egarr's way of spreading out the chords impressing the music deep into the listener's consciousness. This wonderful piece in turn prepares the ground for the delicate sadness of the closing Tombeau de M. Blancrocher, written to mark the tragic death after a fall of the Parisian lutenist of that name.

Mr. Egarr shares out the music between two instruments, copies by Joel Katzman of 17th-century harpsichords - one of a Flemish Ruckers, the other of a Parisian instrument. The first is as sweet-sounding as can be, the second more incisive in tone, but both are superb instruments and ideally suited to the purpose. The recording, always a difficult balance to achieve, is excellent, and Mr. Egarr's booklet notes are fascinating. As far as I can tell there has been only one other complete survey of Louis' keyboard music on CD, by Davitt Moroney; it was highly regarded in its time but is no longer available. There are several other CDs available of selected suites and pieces, my favourites among the ones I know being by Gustav Leonhardt, Bob van Asperen and Huguette Grémy-Chauliac. But this complete set from Richard Egarr beats them all as far as I'm concerned; it's a bold project, quite beautifully executed, and altogether a wonderful collection for lovers of the baroque keyboard.

As for Louis Couperin's place in musical history - well, you'll want to judge this for yourself, but Richard Egarr's charismatic way with the keyboard certainly makes a brilliant case for it and wonderfully communicates his deep love of Louis' works. What I would say without a doubt, though, is that this is great music which, like Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier or Goldberg Variations, not only demands close attention but rewards it in full measure.

It would seem that I have been waiting for this album for almost 40 years.

It was then that my piano teacher graciously and without any real sense of loss GAVE me a book of these pieces, and I must say I had never seen music that looked like this on the page, free and articulated with broad phrase lines in a reproduction of what was evidently a fair copy of the original manuscripts.

Louis came before music was "published" as such, and in 1971 it would seem that Louis ought to have been "published in the natural way" by then , as Teleman, or Bach or Scarlatti...but no. No other form of this music on the page could do justice to the sense of a piece as a "Prelude" was in this era. A free expanse of musical expression in search of a tonality, a succession of auditory exploration.

And if you went through the "Old Music Revival" of the late 60's and early 70's you cannot help taking some long term pleasure in the endurance of the contributions of this movement's musicians and its instrument builders.

The early 17 C. was a special period- when a third, a fourth, and a fifth were real, but the circle of fifths just a hazy dream, when you didn't pull your instrument up to pitch without considering where it sounded or operated best, when the intrusion of a set form such as a Branle Bas or a Courante was perhaps either a grand opportunity, or a drag, depending on your point of view. The Prelude, the Sarabande and the Chaconne rule.

If you like Francois, or think the two Couperin's have something in common, put that aside. Louis is in an earlier time, just before the beginning of the period portrayed in "Tous les Matins du Monde" All the Mornings of the World (Tous les matins du monde) Two-Disc Edition.

No music then sought to represent "music" as such, but merely seek it, and find it where it was. Less than actually recording it, it was barely written out, as at least 50% of the music played is not actually on the page.

I was sold on the entire album, but I understand the desire to have a guide to it on a "track" perspective. However it does mean dictating how people listen to this, and what their previous experiences are.

I am currently fond of CD1: I. Suite in C major and CD2: VI. Suite in D minor, especially track 8, Sarabande, 1'28: because I have played it hundreds of times on the piano and never tire of it.

I will say this: the album comes with a booklet complete with piece information, but the discs have only digital track identifications, just numbers so when you transfer it to your playing device, nothing more than a Track Number appears.

Perhaps this is different for track sales.

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