Couperin - Le?ons de t?n?bres / Gens, Piau, Les talens lyriques, Rousset
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CD Details
Edition: Music CDCD Release Date: 2000-03-14
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: ALEPH
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: BETH
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: GIMEL
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: DALETH
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: HETH
- Premi?re Le?on ? une voix: Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum
- Deuxi?me Le?on ? une voix: VAU
- Deuxi?me Le?on ? une voix: ZAIN
- Deuxi?me Le?on ? une voix: HETH
- Deuxi?me Le?on ? une voix: TETH
- Deuxi?me Le?on ? une voix: Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum
- Troisi?me Le?on ? deux voix: JOD
- Troisi?me Le?on ? deux voix: CAPH
- Troisi?me Le?on ? deux voix: LAMED
- Troisi?me Le?on ? deux voix: MEM
- Troisi?me Le?on ? deux voix: NUN
- Troisi?me Le?on ? deux voix: Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum
Music reviews of Couperin - Le?ons de t?n?bres / Gens, Piau, Les talens lyriques, Rousset
Music Review: Sublime music given a solid performance that falls short of heaven
Rating: 4 Stars
Veronique Gens and Sandrine Piau are two lovely singers. I own recordings of both of them which are lovely - Piau's Mozart arias is exquisite (better by several degrees than her more recent Handel arias recording, but that too has some fine things), and Gens' extensive recording repertoire from her Mozart to her Berlioz is regularly taken out of my CD shelves to be given another listen.
It was with the expectation of delight that I purchased this recording. To my astonishment, the performance failed to "shimmer", right from the start. It seemed pedestrian, walking where it should float. The blend of the two voices was... well, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't wonderful.
The fault is absolutely not that of the music. Couperin's lamentations are utterly, utterly beautiful. This SHOULD have been a truly gorgeous recording. Don't mistake me - it's not dreadful. The two sopranos, as I've said, are lovely on other recordings. I feel that perhaps they did not share the same vision of the works on this recording, so that they sometimes seem to be pulling away from each other rather than together. In the duet work, this is fatal...
Yet even in the solo portions of the works recorded here, I was not transported with delight. I think it may be at least partly due to the recording itself rather than the singers, but I do have a few quibbles with regard to the singing. Firstly - the Latin is not French Latin, as I've always considered it should be. Secondly, the ornamentation is inconsistent, and doesn't always follow the markings in the score. Thirdly, the tones of both sopranos seemed not to fall into the right sound for the Couperin works. I am at a loss to understand why - really, these two sopranos are so experienced in French baroque works that I fully expected them to have created a delicious performance.
I hovered between 3 and 4 stars for this. I suppose I am very much a person of "Yes, I love this" or "No, I loathe it" - my opinions are rarely tepid. Here, I am confused - because it SHOULD have been wonderful.
There are now quite a number of version of the Couperin "Le?ons" available - there's the Kirkby/Nelson (white and bland), the Deller (avoid), the Jacobs/Chance (actually that's not bad! - but I truly think this work finds its apex of beauty sung by sopranos rather than countertenors), the Daniel Taylor/Robin Blaze (quite nice, but here even more than the Jacobs version, I felt the lack of soaring that one gets with two sopranos), and the version of all versions - sung by Patricia Petibon and Sophie Daneman. That version above all is beatiful beyond belief. If you only intend to have one recording of the Couperin "Le?ons", I strongly recommend the Petibon/Daneman one, conducted by William Christie.
In fact, to truly understand why I so strongly recommend the alternative version, why not get both this and the Petibon/Daneman one? Listen to them one after the other - the comparison is astonishing.
General CDs
- Styles > Classical
- Featured Composers, A-Z > ( B ) > Bolcom, William
- ( C ) > Couperin, Fran?ois
- Featured Performers, A-Z > ( R ) > Rousset, Christophe
- Historical Periods > Baroque (c.1600-1750) > General
- Opera & Vocal > General
- Vocal Non-Opera > Motets
- Classical - Featured Composers, A-Z - ( C ) - Couperin, Fran?ois - General
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