- Amazon Sales Rank: #100800 in Music
- Released on: 2007-05-08
- Number of discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Dimensions: .21 pounds
| The title refers to a piece Alexandre Tharaud plays often as an encore, and it’s an apt (and catchy) introduction to this wide-ranging selection of Francois Couperin’s works in the first place written for the harpsichord. Couperin arranged such short pieces into Ordres, or suites and Tharaud has fashioned his own suite made up of those most amenable to the progressed piano. As such, it’s a fantasti followup to his earlier disc of Rameau and an example of the adaptability of French Baroque keyboard music to the innovative instrument that must please all but the most die-hard devotees of “authentic” instruments. If anything, the richer timbres, varied colors, and dynamic capablenesses of Tharaud’s concert grand yield dandier availability to Couperin’s delightful miniatures, none lasting much more than five minutes. These gems are played with fleet-fingered accuracy and imagination. The usual Musette de Taverni gains from overdubbing, and the addition of the tambour to Bruit de Guerre is a delightful touch. As an encore to Couperin’s 19 pieces, Tharaud closes with Duphly’s La Pothouin, a lovely work that induces thoughts of Romantic era keyboard poets. A completely successful recital, yielding over an hour of pure enchantment. – Dan Davis
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Alexandre Tharaud Plays Couperin Tic Pic
Alexandre Tharaud Plays Couperin Tic Photo
Alexandre Tharaud Plays Couperin Tic Photo
Alexandre Tharaud Plays Couperin Tic Pic
Alexandre Tharaud Plays Couperin Tic Photo
Alexandre Tharaud Plays Couperin Tic Picture
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
 Another winner from Alexandre Tharaud
By Discophage
While Bach and Scarlatti have always been accepted territory for pianists, I wonder why this hasn’t been the case with Haendel, Rameau and Couperin. There have been a few exceptions, of course – in Haendel NOT Gould, as he recorded it for once on a heavy, thumping harpsichord (Handel: Harpsichord Sonatas Nos. 1-4; Bach: Preludes & Fugues, BWV 878 & 883), but Eric Heidsieck on the small French label Cassiopée; for Rameau and Couperin, Marcelle Meyer in 1946 and 1953-5 (Volume. 2-Les Introuvables De Marcelle Meyer), Jean Casadesus, Robert’s son, who died tragically young in an auto accident (1954, Jean & Robert Casadesus – Ravel, Bach, Rameau, Couperin, Poulenc, Françaix, Tailleferre, R. Casadesus, D. Scarlatti, and Cziffra (Rendez-vous de Senlis). Robert Casadesus also did a little Rameau in 1952 (Robert Casadesus: Rameau, Scarlatti, Mozart, Haydn) and Thérèse Dussaut recorded the complete keyboard output at the end of the 1970s (only samples of these 5 LPs have been reissued on CD). But these were precisely that: exceptions. One answer, of course, would be that these composers’ keyboard music is inferior in quality to Bach’s and Scarlatti’s. I do not buy that at all. I’ve recently heard a Haendel disc by Varam Mardirossian on the French label Intrada, and it is marvelous (apparently it is not yet listed on this site but you’ll find it on the French sister company, under ASIN B0002OVQE8). Is it “inferior” or “equal” to Bach is a consideration that I find entirely spurious: the pleasure it procures has been, for me, certainly equal to what I feel when listening to Bach’s Partitas or French and English Suites. So for Haendel my suggestion would be that the relative neglect of his keyboard works results from the fact that they wern’t as central to his oeuvre as they were to Bach’s. But Rameau, Couperin?
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
piece to musics
By djg
came across Tharaud’s Bach recording by chance… a revelation; now his selection of Couperin pieces which is the same; I knew them only as a purist ie played on period harpsichords ;loved it from the first listen;fine fingered without being gooey-soppy, full of moods you can feel even without looking at the name of the piece;all in finesse and mastered delicacy without foppishness. a delight to the ears
djg
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Couperin was not among my favourite composers… until now
By Juan C. Garay
It’s not that I dislike the harpsichord but … I never thought i’d find Couperin’s keyboard music so interesting until I heard it played on a modern piano. To my ears, it gains in strength and colour. Thank you monsieur Tharaud for such a delightful and revelatory experience.
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