French Harpsichord Music

Poised at the convergence of 18th-century French and Italian schools, Leclair and Senaillé were the French Paganinis of their day. Technically challenging yet full of poetry, rhythmically varied and always dance-like, their sonatas find two fervent advocates in Théotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie. Transcending generational differences, the “venerated elder statesman of early music” (Opera News) and the youthful violin prodigy join forces to help us rediscover these still unjustly neglected pages.

“But surely you know that of all Lutheran composers Benda is my favourite,” W.A.Mozart wrote to his father from Mannheim… Educated by the intellectual Lutheran milieu and profoundly affected first by the French Enlightenment and then, in particular, by the artistic rebellion of the “Sturm und Drang,” Benda was a typical child of his times. His musical language crystallized into its supreme form in the 1770s, a time when he also wrote the majority of his most important works including the harpsichord concertos.

Strong but delicate, deliberate but subtle, driven but supple, Masaaki Suzuki's 2005 recording of Bach's Italian Concerto and French Overture for harpsichord are quite convincing in their own distinctive way. In Suzuki's hands, the opening crash of the Italian Concerto is as instantly arresting as the powerful opening prelude and fugue from the French Overture is immediately appealing.

The programme on this disc which is the ensemble Academy of Ancient Music's first has been presented in many cities of the USSR. The music is performed on Italian and French instruments of the 17th - 18th centuries, a harpsichord made by F.Ravdonikas (after the Flemish original of the 17th century). The pitch is 415 Hz. (about half a tone below the modern pitch).

VA - French Recorder Suites - Frans Brüggen Edition Vol. 6
Baroque | Easy CD-DA, APE, Cue | No Log | 1 CD, covers | 229 MB | RS
Teldec 4509-97468 | 1995

The French composer Charles Dieupart travelled to London around 1700, and in 1701 he published six harpsichord suites.
Dieupart simultaneously published an edition of these suites in a version for recorder (or flute), violin and continuo, including precise instructions as to the particular type of recorder on which the suites should be played.
Jacques-Martin Hotteterre was known as "Le Romain", a sobriquet that may be attributable to a visit to Rome. Hotteterre's Suitte was written in the heyday of French mannerism, a stylistic trend characterised by its extreme ornamentation.

The epitome of a Renaissance man, Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) won success and acclaim as a poet, writer, musician, lawyer, judge, administrator and philologist. Though his keyboard sonatas have appeared on several recorded collections of the Italian Baroque, they have rarely been presented in a comprehensive manner. In doing so, this album celebrates the personal even idiosyncratic style of a composer whose technical accomplishment facilitates rather than stifling his creative voice. The 12 Sonatas were later published as Op.3. They date from early in Marcellos career, and are mostly cast in three and four brief movements, though the first and last of them, in D minor and C minor respectively, feature more extended forms.