The Couperin Family

The New Grove Dictionary has entries on 10 musically active members of the Couperin dynasty, of whom Armand-Louis is, chronologically speaking, the eighth. Born in 1725, he was the son of one of the great François Couperin’s cousins, and held a number of organ posts in Paris, including the virtually family-owned one of St Gervais, on the way to Vespers at which he was killed in a road accident just a few months before the Revolution. According to accounts he was a likeable man whose life was led free from strife and uncorrupted by ambition, and it is not fanciful to say that such are the qualities which inform his harpsichord music. Mostly rather rangy character pieces, though with a sprinkling of dances, they show the bold textural richness of the later French harpsichordist-composers, if without the galloping imagination of figures such as Rameau, Balbastre or Royer. Instead, they prefer to inhabit a contented rococo world, into which they bring considerable professional polish. If that makes the pieces sound predominantly ‘pleasant’, well, so they are… as agreeable a body of solo harpsichord music as any. But they are not vapid and neither are they easy, and we can be grateful that this selection has fallen to a player as technically assured and as musically sympathetic as Sophie Yates.

An original and prestigious concept: the harpsichord music by the 4 prominent members of the Couperin Dynasty! The Couperin Dynasty, a renowned family of French composers, spanned several generations and played a pivotal role in the development of Baroque music during the 17th and 18th centuries. This musical lineage, centered around the Parisian court, produced a remarkable array of composers, the most prominent of whom were François Couperin, his nephew Armand-Louis Couperin, Louis Couperin and Gervais-François Couperin.

Early music ensemble Earthly Angels was founded in 2016 by Kajsa Dahlbäck and is affiliated with Vaasa Baroque. Its first release was awarded "Album of the Year 2018" by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation. The ensemble Earthly Angels performs vocal chamber music mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. It focuses on a close, embodied relationship between text and music, on finding new interesting music from the early music repertoire, and on making early music meaningful for today's audiences.

When these suites by Louis Couperin were first issued their release coincided with Davitt Moroney's all-embracing survey for Harmonia Mundi, now on four CDs (4/90), of the composer's complete solo harpsichord music. Prior to that, the field belonged mainly to Gustav Leonhardt and Laurence Boulay (Harmonia Mundi and Erato, respectively—both nla). More recently, the French harpsichordist Blandine Verlet has entered the lists with two discs on Astree (see review above) with the promise, indeed assurance of more to come.

This 2CD set aims to give the listener a good idea of the range of music composed by a remarkable musical dynasty, the Forqueray family. They were a family of organists, viol players and harpsichordists. They were every bit as remarkable as the other great musical dynasties, the Bendas, Stamitzs, Bachs, and the Strauss family. The most famous member of the Forqueray family (their Johann Sebastian) was Antoine, who was born in 1672, a virtuoso gambist. His output forms the backbone of the French repertoire for this instrument.