Versailles
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RAMEAU / ROYER / COUPERIN / D'ANGLEBERT / DUPHLY
Versailles
Alexandre Tharaud (piano), with Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Justin Taylor (piano)
[ Erato / Warner Classics / CD ]
Release Date: Tuesday 5 November 2019
Alexandre Tharaud pays tribute to composers associated with the courts of the French kings Louis XIV, XV and XVI. Lully, Rameau, Charpentier and François Couperin stand beside lesser-known masters: d'Anglebert, Forqueray, Royer, Duphly and Balbastre. "I've always been attracted by French music of this period," says Tharaud, adding that when he plays the album's initial Rameau prelude, "It's like being alone at Versailles, opening the doors and entering those huge, imposing rooms."
"Such verbal insight and enthusiasm are mirrored in superb performances of the music, be they frisky or plaintive, poetic or pungent, gloriously dismissive of convention or expectation. In Rameau's Gavotte et doubles he employs the widest variety of touch and colour, revelling in the resources of a modern piano, while in the same composer's Viens, Hymen he is joined by silvery-voiced Sabine Devieilhe." International Piano
"He doesn't let the fact that some of this music is inherently unpianistic get in his way…It's a beautifully programmed disc - so much so that it begs to be heard complete. And the sense that he has lived with this music for a long time is abundantly apparent… His sense of characterisation and fine detailing is everywhere apparent… Even for aficionados of this repertoire there are surprises to be had" Gramophone Editor's Choice Feb 2020
Tracks:
Rameau: Premier Livre de pieces de clavecin: Prelude
Rameau: Le rappel des oiseaux
Visée: De Visée / Transcr Tharaud: Livre de pièces pour la guitare, Suite No. 9 in D Minor: IV. Sarabande
Rameau: Suite in E minor: Le Tambourin
Royer, P: Premier livre de pièces de clavecin: VI. L'Aimable
Rameau: Gavotte et doubles
Anglebert: Sarabande: Dieu des Enfers
Royer, P: La Marche des Scythes
Rameau: Viens, hymen (from Les Indes Galantes)
Royer, P: Premier et deuxième Tambourins (from Premier livre de pièces de clavecin)
Couperin, F: Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 25ème in E flat major: Les ombres errantes
Duphly: Rondeau: La Pothoüin
Rameau: Les Sauvages (excerpt)
Anglebert: Chaconne [from Pièces in C]
Anglebert: Cadmus: Overture (after Lully)
Couperin, F: Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 8ème in B minor: Passacaille
Anglebert: Fugue grave
Duphly: La de Belombre (from Troisième livre de pièces de clavecin)
Lully: Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs
Balbastre: La Suzanne
Anglebert: Variations sur Les Folies d'Espagne in Pièces de clavecin
