Bauyn Archive

LOUIS COUPERIN: Dances from the Bauyn Manuscript = Three suites  (d minor, g minor, A Major) and other dances. – Pavel Kolesnikov, piano – Hyperion 

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 4, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Pavel Kolesnikov devotes a refined disc to the music of Louis Couperin, one of the pillars of the French clavecin school.  LOUIS COUPERIN: Dances from the Bauyn Manuscript = Suite in d minor; Suite in g minor; Suite in A Major; Allemande Grave in F Major; Chaconne in F Major; Chaconne ou Passacaille in g minor; Pavane in f-sharp minor; Tombeau de Mr de Blancrocher – Pavel Kolesnikov, piano – Hyperion CDA68224, 79:11 (3/3018) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****:  For the French Baroque, the esteemed Couperin family occupies a singular place, and Louis Couperin (1626-1661) perhaps deserves the celebrity of his brother Francois (1668-1733).  As composer, harpsichord player, organist, and viol performer, Louis built a solid reputation, especially as his music became, in the words of Abbe Le Gallois, “valued by the learned [for its] full… chords and enriched with beautiful dissonances, imagery, and imitation.”   Louis Couperin’s music—serving the special province of the French clavecinistes—delights in the use of suspensions, and proceeds in a style that fluctuates between serenity and emotional turmoil.  Highly influenced by Johann Jakob Froberger, Louis Couperin left some 120 pieces for harpsichord, assembled in random order after 1676 in an anthology, the Bauyn Manuscript, copied […]