François COUPERIN (1668-1733)
Complete Works for Harpsichord
Carole Cerasi (harpsichord)
rec. 2016 and 2017, Surrey & Hertfordshire, England
METRONOME METCD1100 [10 CDs: 694:33]
The twenty-seven Livres of François Couperin’s harpsichord pieces for many mark the pinnacle of French baroque keyboard music, and this recording is certainly one of the best sets currently available. Like Olivier Baumont’s recording on Erato (9029563455), Carole Cerasi here presents l’Art de toucher le clavecin on a single disc, whereas Michael Borgstede positions the ‘eight preludes and an allemande’ split throughout his set for Brilliant (95250/9). I must say that I find them much more rewarding when presented as a set, but Borgstede’s performance is still very good. For the purpose of this review, I will refer mainly to those two recordings, as my other recording by Christophe Rousset, who also presents the works on Harmonia Mundi (2901442.52), has long been deleted and second-hand copies now fetch silly prices – but that is still my benchmark set.
These pieces, as Olivier Baumont states, are “often more enigmatic than one might think, but at the same time sometimes simpler than they appear… They resist traditional analysis just as much as they hold out against a poetical explanation of their titles. The harpsichordist finds himself face to face with a very real magician, a composer both conscious and certain of his ability to manipulate our sensibilities and our emotions.” This leaves them interpretatively open and subject to changes of style; Cerasi, Baumont and Borgstede all present them in their own, unique way, and there are particular pieces which I prefer played by each of the players. However, as a whole, I find Carole Cerasi’s set the most satisfying. For me, it has a greater sense of poise and elegance than either of the other two, although Baumont pushes her close at times.
Carole Cerasi opens the set with l’Art de toucher le clavecin, thereby using it as a kind of herald for the magnificence of the four Livres that follow, which means that the programme does reflect compositional order, as it was published in 1716, between the first and second Livres; despite this, it still works well. Both Baumont and Rousset place it correctly, but in my opinion, both positions work well and are preferable to Borgstede’s placement. After this, Cerasi largely places the Ordres in order, with only the short Quatrième Ordre being placed on disc two, between the second and third Ordres to facilitate the logistics of not splitting the Troisième Ordre between two discs, so this and the fifth Ordres fit on the following disc, which for me is preferable.
Her performance is effortlessly stylish and elegant, her well-paced tempos ensuring that she never sounds rushed, so that she can easily bring out that “enigmatic” nature of the music. I have admired Carole Cerasi as a performer for some time now; her playing on the award-winning disc of the harpsichord suites of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (MET CD 1026) is quite wonderful, as are her CPE and JS Bach discs (MET CD 1032 and 1078) (which, sadly, I loaned to a friend never to see again - the perils of lending out discs). This present set has the same excellent quality as those earlier discs. While there are individual pieces, such as Les baricades mistérieuses, which have become very well known and a staple of both harpsichord and piano recital discs, as well as various other arrangements, it is the more unusual and unknown pieces which display the true art of the composer. Le Rossignol-en-amour – Double du Rossignol at the beginning of the Quatorzième Orde deserve to be better known, and here it gets a superb performance, and the much faster, dancelike tempo of Le Linote-éfarouchée which follows demonstrates the variety even of pieces from the same Ordre.
There are magnificent performances of individual pieces throughout this set, such as La Lugubre, Sarabande in the Troisième Ordre, the Musétede Choisi – Muséte de Taverni in the Quinzième Ordre, and La Superbe ou la Forqueray from the Dix-Septième Ordre, to name but three; indeed, every Ordre contains specific pieces which could be called highlights, but in reality the set in its entirety is a winner. Overall, this set is the strongest of the three available sets I own; although Baumont and Borgstede have their moments, it is the consistently excellent interpretation and playing of Carole Cerasi that wins the day. Nonetheless, I still find Christophe Rousset to have the edge over the other three recordings, if only slightly when compared to Carole Cerasi, not just as a consequence of his inclusion of the harpsichord version of the Concerts Royaux or the disc of works for two harpsichords with William Christie, but also because of the greater panache in his playing. However, as that is no longer available, it is this Carole Cerasi set which must be the top recording, especially when you take into account the excellent sound quality, the choice of the instruments, which are detailed in the booklet, and the brief but excellent notes by Nicolas Anderson.
Stuart Sillitoe
Contents
CD 1 [55:01]
L'art de toucher le clavecin [15:27]
Pièces de clavecin I: Ordre 1ère in G major [39:22]
CD 2 [73:59]
Pièces de clavecin I: Ordre 2ème in D major [55:31]
Pièces de clavecin I: Ordre 4ème in F major [18:14]
CD 3 [77::28]
Pièces de clavecin I: Ordre 3ème in C major [36:13]
Pièces de clavecin I: Ordre 5ème in A major [41:03]
CD 4 [75:47]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 6ème in B flat [21:28]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 7ème in G major/minor [25:13]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 8ème in B minor [28:53]
CD 5 [78:14]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 9ème in A major [30:00]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 10ème in D major [24:45]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 11ème in C major [23:20]
CD 6 [66:52]
Pièces de clavecin II: Ordre 12ème in E major [19:33]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 13ème in B minor [22:23]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 14ème in D major/minor [24:46]
CD 7 [64:46]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 14ème in D major/minor [25:11]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 16ème in G major [25:25]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 17ème in E major [14:01]
CD 8 [64:56]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 18ème in F major [20:30]
Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 19ème in D major [20:07]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 20ème in G major [24:10]
CD 9 [81:47]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 21ème in E minor [16:14]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 22ème in D major [17:25]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 23ème in F major [17:56]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 24ème in A major [29:58]
CD 10 [55:43]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 25ème in E flat major [17:30]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 26ème in F sharp minor [21:11]
Pièces de clavecin IV: Ordre 27ème in B minor [16:57]
This set from Carole Cerasi is the most recommendable of currently available recordings.
