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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Duphly: Works for harpsichord
Jacques Duphly was born the year of the death of Louis XIV [1715] and he died the year of the storming of the Bastille [1789]. His works consist of his four books of harpsichord pieces. Through his teacher Dagincourt he inherited the style of François Couperin, whose tender expression and ornamentation he adopted. He also fully assimilated the style of Rameau, who dominated French music in the first half of the 18th century. Although his style changed considerably between his first book of harpsichord pieces (1744) and his fourth (1768), Duphly epitomised aesthetic expression as it was at the time of Louis XV (1723-1774). Following the arrival in France of many foreign composers, prompted by Queen Marie-Antoinette, Duphly was eclipsed and he died in poverty and oblivion. Duphly was not an innovator; he revolutionised neither style nor technique, nor did he attempt to impose a personality. As a result he is regarded as a minor composer. Yet he composed splendidly for the harpsichord, exploring all its registers; he was above all a harpsichordist. Through this recording we have attempted to restore the virility of his compositions, the severity of some features, the sincerity of his gesture, all these greatly inspired by the beautiful Kroll harpsichord, kindly made available to us by its owner and restorer Marc Ducornet. This instrument, which Duphly could have played, offers both sparkle and depth, two of the features of music of the second half of the 18th century. [from Christophe Rousset's booklet notes] Christian Kroll was born c.1747 in Soldine (Electorate of Brandenburg). It is very likely that he worked in Lyon with the famous harpsichord maker Joseph Collesse. In 1776 he made this beautiful double-manual harpsichord, which still has its original decoration. “Rousset plays all with dexterous fluency and stylistic assurance, and the harpsichord's character is vividly enlivened by the excellent recording” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Purcell: Harmonia Sacra
Purcell: | Tell me, some pitying angel (The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation), Z196 In the black dismal dungeon of despair, Z190 We sing to him, whose wisdom form'd the ear, Z199 Air in G minor Great God and just, Z186 My song shall be always, Z31 Ground in D minor, ZD222 Lord, what is man?, Z192 Let the night perish (Job's Curse), Z191 Chacony in G minor - for Two Violins, Viola and Bass Z730 The night is come, ZD77 With sick and famish'd eyes, Z200 How have I stray'd, Z188 Suite in G minor My op’ning eyes are purg’d, ZD72 How long, great God?, Z189 Ground in C minor, ZD221 Sleep, Adam, and take thy rest, Z195 Thou wakeful shepherd that dost Israel keep (A Morning Hymn), Z198 The earth trembled, Z197 An Evening Hymn 'Now that the sun hath veiled his light', Z193 |
A dream cast for selected pieces from Purcell's masterpieces. Christophe Rousset has brought together leading experts in this field (Elizabeth Kenny and Laurence Dreyfus) around Rosemary Joshua to give us a benchmark performance. This disc is a gem and a priority of the label for the semester. “For a singer who began her career in the early 1990s, Joshua sounds astonishingly fresh — Emma Kirkby-like in the purity of her sound, although she brings a wider palette of colour to this kind of music than the veteran early-music diva ever did.” Sunday Times, 25th March 2012 “Purcell is not known as a composer of sacred songs. The 24 here, all scored for a single high voice, come from two volumes published in his later years, which group the work of several composers but are dominated by Purcell’s. Some are less than 30 bars long, others sound almost cantata-like. All are intimate and varied in tone. Whether they were designed to be heard in sequence like this is questionable, but [Rosemary] Joshua brings them vividly to life” Financial Times, 21st April 2012 “The word-painting of the sacred texts — involving angular leaps, florid melismas and a fluid mixture of declamation and gorgeous lyricism — is intense and detailed. Rosemary Joshua does it full justice, yet also seems to float, lithe and graceful, through it all. It’s a masterclass in delicate Baroque singing.” The Times, 19th May 2012 **** “Joshua brings vocal security and textual intelligence to these works and though a slightly flighty vibrato sometimes threatens the music's intimacy, it does not get in the way of superbly realised greater dramatic truth. The continuo accompaniments are as sensitively accomplished as one would expect from such a line-up...If this is a sober disc, it is also one which reeks of Purcell's genius.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “Rosemary Joshua brings to these accounts all the aplomb of a Baroque diva, with her sharply etched diction, perspicuous dramatic insights and varied vocal timbres...It would be easy for Joshua to steal the show, but the instrumentalists respond to her pliant vocal lines with sensitively articulated continuo playing.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | JS Bach: Fantasy
Bach, J S: | Fantasia in A minor, BWV922 Fantasia & Fugue in A minor, BWV904 Prelude & Fughetta in F major, BWV901 Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo, BWV992 Prelude, Fugue & Allegro for Lute in E flat major, BWV998 Adagio in G major, BWV968 Prelude & Fughetta in G major, BWV902 Prelude & Fugue in A minor, BWV894 Aria Variata in A minor, BWV989 ‘alla Maniera Italiana' |
As harpsichordist, conductor, and musical director of the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset is one of the finest interpreters of Baroque music. His first recording for Aparté, devoted to Louis Couperin, was received most enthusiastically by public and critics alike, and collected many distinctions in the international press including BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Choice. Now at the peak of his maturity, the artist presents an original programme, Bach Fantasy, in which he treats us to little-known works but also standards by the great J.S. Bach. Apart from the important sets of works, including the Goldberg Variations, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the keyboard Suites and Partitas, many miscellaneous pieces by Bach have come down to us in the hand of his pupils and admirers: early essays, pieces of a didactic nature, evocations of emotions, and sometimes all of the above. Christophe Rousset plays these pieces on the 1632 Ruckers harpsichord of Neuchâtel, one of the finest in the world. “Christophe Rousset's new album, Bach Fantasy, reveals the freedom, vigour and improvisatory bravura of Bach's genius through a miscellany of pieces less frequently aired than his canonical keyboard works...Rousset captures the emotional extremes of the teenage composer...[there's] a real sense of live performance - one that, literally and figuratively, pulls out all the stops.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 ***** “Stylistically and tonally, the variety is dazzling.” The Independent, 23rd January 2011 “Fantasy is the right word for a harpsichord recital superbly played on an instrument built in 1632 and amended a century later. It’s a feisty creature that has warmth and character...Rousset’s mastery is total; every thread of counterpoint dances, crystal-clear, before us. A delightful disc.” The Times, 7th January 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Christophe Rousset plays Marchand & Rameau
"Louis Marchand is the French composer who has entered legend for a musical duel with J. S. Bach which he is supposed finally to have dodged. But to make one’s mark on posterity that way is a sad comedown for so eminent a composer of organ and harpsichord music. Although he died in the reign of Louis XV, he retained in his style a nobility of tone wholly typical of the age of Louis XIV. The conception of harpsichord sound in Marchand is much closer to d’Anglebert than to Rameau. Like his predecessor, he employs a profusion of ornaments which considerably enrich the sustaining power of the sound and mean that a string is kept constantly in vibration. He uses the medium-low register in preference to the treble, thus bringing the harpsichord closer to the theorbo or the bass viol. Rameau, for his part, immediately imposes his new and revolutionary conception of music. Everything here breathes harmony. The discourse is always deliberately clear, favouring transparency over the bombastic effects of a more sensual harpsichord sound. The link that inspired me to choose this programme for the sumptuous Donzelague harpsichord, which, it may be recalled, was only just saved for the nation when I was still a student with Huguette Dreyfus (I can still remember the inaugural concert at the Salle Gaveau where my teacher played Rameau on it, among others) is, of course the city of Lyon. Donzelague built his instruments in Lyon; Marchand was born and studied the organ with his father there. Rameau lived in Lyon for a period in 1713, composing his grands motets there. During his brief stay in Paris in 1706, he took up residence opposite the Church of the Cordeliers where Marchand just happened to be organist at the time, and attempted to solicit the favour of the Parisian public by publishing his first opus at so early an age. This Donzelague harpsichord, like the instruments by Nicolas Dumont from the early years of the 18nth century, is extended down to the low F, thus abandoning the 17th-century French tradition of the G’-B short octave. Hence it allows the music on the present recording to sound in its full sonic and declamatory amplitude." Christophe Rousset “Rousset's scrupulous technique and sinewy fingerwork make light of this highly wrought style...He reads the unmeasured preludes with improvisatory flair and is ever responsive to the pliant rhythms of the dance movements...The magnificent early 17th-century harpsichord is by Pierre Donzelague...Its voluptuous sound and temperament enhance Rameau's spicy colours and the burnished sonorities of Marchand's Suites.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ***** “almost everything on this intriguing disc seems to flow from the choice of instrument...It is more urgent than elegant, yet remarkably alert and precise. Everything becomes crisper...Rousset's reading is tightly wound, uncommonly so for this player. Ornaments are snapped and inegalite is subtle to the point of being more a matter of impression than discernible gesture.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Christophe Rousset plays Louis Couperin
Christophe Rousset is one of the most brilliant harpsichordists of his generation, whose recordings have been hailed by the international press, including those of François Couperin for harmonia mundi. This is the first time he has recorded works by Louis Couperin. He preferred not to record the complete works, as he explains: “For this recording, we have selected the very finest pieces by Louis Couperin. We ruled out the idea of performing all the pieces - that has already been done by some of our eminent colleagues. We did not want to have three Courantes in succession or a Chaconne and a Passacaille following each other in the same key, nor for the suites to be unnecessarily long, and lacking the coherence and pertinence that the form requires. Although the material available would have enabled us to put together several suites, we decided to present just one suite in F or in A. And generally we have followed the order of Parville rather than of Bauyn. Thus, I believe, the listener will be able to apprehend Louis Couperin at his most expressive, in the richness of his harmonies and rhetoric, and in the subtle contrasts that make him one of the most amazing precursors not only of his nephew François Couperin, le grand, but also of Jean-Baptiste Lully.” “His playing has a kind of courtly correctness, more rhythmically precise and less free-spirited than some interpreters of the keyboard music of the French baroque, but with an airy grave of its own. They are beautifully realised discs.” The Guardian, 15th July 2010 **** “Rousset, playing a restored 1658 Louis Denis instrument, goes to great lengths to clarify the elaborate decorations” Financial Times, 22nd August 2010 ** “In this often introspective music by Louis Couperin, uncle of the famous François, Rousset's depth of expressivity and rhythmic confidence are as impressive as the brilliance of his articulation...Highlights include the bravura C-minor Gigue, and the sombre Tombeau and Pavane.” The Independent, 22nd August 2010 “Rousset combines meticulous fingerwork and attention to the music's intricacies with rhetorical gestures, balletic energy and a dramatic flair informed by his long experience directing French Baroque opera and ballet. This is playing of subtlety and refinement that underscores the meditative qualities of Couperin's persona.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 ***** “Overall, Rousset, without lacking the least gravity and poise, tends to be fleeter and zestier than his competition, surpassing all especially in the excitement of his 'chaconnes' and 'passacailles'. It is clear from this recording that Couperin's particular qualities make him a perfect subject for the fiery, rather showy and yet reflective Rousset. Highly recommended.” International Record Review, October 2010  BBC Music Magazine
Instrumental Choice - October 2010 |
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| |  | Froberger: Harpsichord Suites
For his third harpsichord recital in the ‘Cité de la Musique’ series, the remarkable French harpsichordist Christophe Rousset plays six of Froberger’s most authoritative suites on a legendary instrument considered a ‘national treasure’ by the French state. Christopher Rousset’s interpretation of Froberger’s suites is all the more impressive and praiseworthy given Froberger’s insistence to have all his manuscripts destroyed after his death, claiming that no one else would be capable of playing his compositions. Froberger was highly sought-after, admired, and regarded as a model to be followed by his European contemporaries. Christophe Rousset is one of the finest harpsichordists of his generation and a leader in the late 20th century revival of French Baroque music, acclaimed both in France and internationally. He has won critical accolades for his extraordinary command of the harpsichord repertory. Christophe Rousset’s recordings of the complete harpsichord works of François Couperin, Rameau, D’Anglebert and Forqueray and his regular incursions into the music of J.S Bach, are regarded as benchmarks. “[Froberger] would surely have been reassured by the deep understanding of Christophe Rousset, who uses an exquisite 17th-century Couchet harpsichord, unequally tuned...The grave eloquence of Froberger's sarabandes is perfectly captured” The Observer, 9th May 2010 “[The Couchet harpsichord] makes a beautiful, richly resonant sound, rendering it ideal for Froberger’s expressive and often melancholic music. Equally well suited is Rousset’s meditative, infinitely flexible approach. His playing is always lovingly articulated and carefully decorated.” Sunday Times, 9th May 2010 “Rousset's fluid grace-notes never obscure the seriousness of these introspective dances...and allows silence to register between the phrases. A thoughtful and distinctive alternative to Richard Egarr's ebullient performance.” The Independent on Sunday, 16th May 2010 | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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The remarkable French harpsichordist Christophe Rousset tackles Rameau’s relatively unknown instrumental transcription of his popular opéra-ballet, Les Indes Galantes. Christophe Rousset plays Rameau’s instrumental transcription of Les Indes Galantes on the stunning 18th century Jean-Henry Hemsch harpsichord. Public disapproval to the premiere of the opéra-ballet led to Rameau not only omitting the recitatives and its controversial passages, but to transcribing the whole work for instruments. He re-grouped the remaining pieces according to their keys into what he called ‘quatre grands concerts’ or concert suites. In doing so, he hoped that the music itself would popularise the opera and would in turn influence the public’s attitude to the work. Rousset is one of the finest and most exciting harpsichordists today, and as a conductor is a leader in the late 20th century revival of French Baroque music. He has won critical accolades for his extraordinary command of the harpsichord repertory. His recordings of the complete harpsichord works of François Couperin, Rameau, D’Anglebert and Forqueray, and his regular incursions into the music of J S Bach, are regarded as benchmarks. With his ensemble, Les Talens Lyrique, Rousset’s most notable successes on disc include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Mitridate, the overtures of Rameau, Lully’s Roland, and Salieri’s La grotta di Trofonio. “Rousset's recital is generously endowed with graceful gestures, elegant phrasing and well-defined ornaments. …he… conveys the sheer charm of the music with impeccable style and flawless technique.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2009 **** “Rameau's keyboard transcription inevitably sounds thin and unidiomatic, though Rousset's rhythmic acuity and sensual phrasing are impressive. A movement-by-movement guide to the Grand Concerts is illuminating.” The Independent on Sunday, 2nd August 2009 “Want a harpsichord in your living room? The sound recording on Rousset’s recital is so vivid that you’ll feel the instrument’s physical presence. It’s a splendid specimen, with the clarity and subtlety necessary for Rameau’s transcriptions of airs and dances from his 1735 opera-ballet about love in exotic climes. Rousset’s a masterful player, brilliant one second, tender the next, and he paints the air with dazzling colours.” The Times, 1st August 2009 **** | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Esprit Baroque
Extracts from: Vivaldi: Gloria, Griselda, Orlando furioso Corelli: Concerti grossi Bach: Cantatas, Brandeburgh Concertos Pergolèsi: Salve Regina Handel: Water Music Charpentier: Te Deum
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A renowned harpsichordist and composer of opera, Pancrace Royer’s only book of keyboard pieces was published in 1746. The music is here performed by the internationally acclaimed soloist Christophe Rousset, an artist who is also known for being the director of the award-winning ensemble Les Talens Lyriques. “This is Christophe Rousset's second recording of Pancrace Royer's 1746 harpsichord pieces. On balance, I incline towards Rousset's new recital. He seems more relaxed and so better able to communicate the music's poetry.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 **** “Pancrace Royer's one book of Pièces de clavecin, published in 1746, is full of spark and variety, ranging from the dulcet 'La Zaïde' to the robust jollity of 'Les matelots', and from the eloquence of 'La Sensible' to the dizzyingly quirky virtuosity of 'Le vertigo'. And while it is Rameau who rightly dominates our knowledge of the musical times in which Royer lived as harpsichord teacher to Louis XV's daughters, composer of operas and director of Paris's prestigious Concert Spirituel, as a keyboard composer in the imaginative, full-bodied mould of someone like Forqueray, Royer need not be considered as totally blotted out by the more famous composer's shadow.
Yet this disc is one of only a handful devoted to Royer's harpsichord music. Remarkably, it is also the second by Christophe Rousset, his first having been 15 years ago for L'Oiseau-Lyre.
The first noticeable difference is in the harpsichords themselves; first time around Rousset had an easy-toned 1751 Hemsch, but this time he uses a composite 18th-century instrument, more aggressive in sound, more 'zingy' at the top end and with less of the Hemsch's mellow resonance. This is not without knock-on effect; whereas before there was a stylish elegance and easy grace of line in the way Rousset dispatched these demanding pieces, now there is a sense that, while his technique remains as enviable as ever, he has to work harder at the music, draw things out more, become more mannered.
Harpsichord enthusiasts unfamiliar with Royer's generous musical personality should take this opportunity to make his acquaintance now.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “…harpsichord enthusiasts unfamiliar with Royer's generous musical personality should take this opportunity to make his acquaintance now.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008 | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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BBC Music Magazine Awards 2011
