Couperin: 45 Pieces for Piano

Couperin: 45 Pieces for Piano

Couperin: 45 Pieces for Piano
Our Price: $31.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $18.49 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album



(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Composer: Francois Couperin
Performer: Ray McIntyre
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-11-01
Music Label: Palatine Recordings
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Pastorale
  2. Mille De Charolais's Piece
  3. The Bees
  4. The Birth Of The Lilies
  5. The Birth Of The Lilies
  6. The Jest
  7. The Trifle
  8. The Little Windmills
  9. Gavotte
  10. Sister Monique
  11. Minuet
  12. Sheepfolds
  13. Canary
  14. Mimi
  15. March Of The Grey-Clad
  16. The Little Dairy-Maids Of Bagnolet
  17. Harlequin
  18. Diana
  19. Lord Bersan's Piece
  20. Wandering Shades
  21. Cupid's Fatal Arrows
  22. Reveille
  23. Distraught
  24. The Florentine
  25. Princess Marie
  26. Baubles
  27. Bells
  28. Scintillating Bontemps/Natural Graces
  29. Tender Fanchon
  30. The Flatterer
Music CD 2
  1. Second Courante
  2. Pretty Madelon/Sweet Janneton
  3. The Nightingale in Love (harpsichord)
  4. The Nightingale in Love (variation, piano)
  5. The Exquisite Allemande
  6. The Carillon at Cythera
  7. The Favorite (A Chaconne In Duple Meter)
  8. Couperin's Piece
  9. The Convalescent
  10. The Artist
  11. The French Follies or Masquerades
  12. The Old Lords, A Solemn Sarabande
  13. The God of Marriage and of Love
  14. Atalanta
  15. Raphael
  16. Triumph

Music reviews of Couperin: 45 Pieces for Piano

Music Review: Melodious, Charming, Fascinating
Rating: 5 Stars

I know next to nothing about the keyboard music of Fran?ois Couperin. When I was a kid pianist I ran across some pieces by him, tried them, got my fingers snagged on the ever-present ornaments and never went back to them. Over the years I have heard bits and bobs of his keyboard works but never really put much effort into knowing more about them. When this 2CD collection came my way I was ready, apparently, to learn more. Fortunately, Ray McIntyre, the pianist/harpsichordist here, wrote very informative booklet notes. Indeed, he indicates that one of his purposes with this set was 'to introduce the intermediate student of the piano or of the harpsichord ... to the challenge of learning fundamental techniques of keyboard performance from the works of a poorly understood master who stood at the beginning of our modern era, systemized an aesthetic method, introduced the concept of studying etudes, revolutionized the appearance of engraved folios of music and founded the genre of the composer-pianist ... [but] the general music lover need not absorb the didactic detail presented in these notes in order to revel in the passion and tenderness of these pieces.'

McIntyre arranged these forty-five short pieces, taken from the more than 200 Couperin wrote, in order of increasing difficulty. All of them present technical difficulties if only because of those ornaments I mentioned. But as we traverse the collection it is clear that textures become denser, tempi quicker and the necessity for differentiation of touch more insistent. McIntyre's playing demonstrates how it should be done.

But more important to the casual listener is the impact of the music itself. These are brief pieces -- interestingly no timings are listed -- that charm with their melodies, their almost conversational impact; it is as if each piece is describing a scene. The titles of the individual pieces help with that -- 'The Bees'; 'Cupid's Fatal Arrows'; 'The Little Windmills'; 'The Convalescent'; 'The Carillon at Cythera'; 'The Nightingale in Love,' etc. The final piece, the longest of the collection, called 'Triumph' is in the form ABACADA and depicts preparing for battle, a fanfare, combat, 'joy of the victors.'

Most of the pieces are played on a Bl?thner piano whose treble has special tuning: a fourth string for each note in the treble is set to vibrate sympathetically at either 4' or 8' pitch, similar to the tuning of a harpsichord. The result is an exceedingly sweet-toned piano sound that is somewhere between a modern piano and a harpsichord. A couple of pieces are played on piano and then on harpsichord, showing interesting contrast.

McIntyre is a sensitive player. At first I felt his performance suffered from tempo instability until I realized that he was responding to the emotional needs of each piece as well as the necessity of giving the often extraordinarily complex ornaments their due. As I became used to this the music took on a more deeply-felt tone that made listening to them more pleasurable. As McIntyre says in his notes, the complexity of the music itself is not immediately perceived by the casual listener because they are beguiled by the charm of Couperin's melodic skill, and that certainly is true. So, this is music the repays both casual and more attentive listening, one of the hallmarks of greatness.

Recommended.

2CDs: 147+mins

Scott Morrison

Description of Couperin: 45 Pieces for Piano

Ray McIntyre has been playing the 216 pieces of Couperin on harpsichord and piano for over fifty years, but in all that time, little effort has been made to render them on the modern piano. In teaching at the Vienna Conservatory for fourteen years and availing himself of Europe's plentiful libraries and archives, Mr. McIntyre offers an unique perspective on 18th century performance practice. He demonstrates that Couperin's Pi?ces de Clavecin become universal keyboard works when the elements of style, touch, articulation, note inequality, the treatment of silences and ornaments are understood.

Courantes CDs

Music Genres
Bestsellers in Courantes CDs
Francois Couperin: Les Idees Heureuses ImageFrancois Couperin: Les Idees Heureuses
Release date: 1992-12-16; Music CD
Best price: $49.99
Johann Jacob Froberger: Hommage ? l'Empereur ImageJohann Jacob Froberger: Hommage ? l'Empereur
Release date: 2006-11-21; Music CD
Best price: $21.25
Price in other shops: $27.98
Gypsy's Round ImageGypsy's Round
Release date: 1996-11-19; Music CD
Best price: $12.77
Price in other shops: $18.98
Orlando Gibbons: Complete Keyboard Works ImageOrlando Gibbons: Complete Keyboard Works
Release date: 2008-07-08; Music CD
Best price: $17.33
Price in other shops: $36.98
John Bull: Walshingham - Organ and Keyboard Works ImageJohn Bull: Walshingham - Organ and Keyboard Works
Release date: 2006-02-21; Music CD
Best price: $11.74
Price in other shops: $17.98
A Renaissance Tour of Europe ImageA Renaissance Tour of Europe
Release date: 1993-08-02; Music CD
Best price: $14.27
Price in other shops: $21.98
Missa Mexicana [Includes Catalog] ImageMissa Mexicana [Includes Catalog]
Release date: 2006-04-11; Music CD
Best price: $5.85
Price in other shops: $9.98
Goldberg Variations/Harpsichord Works ImageGoldberg Variations/ Harpsichord Works
Release date: 2001-06-05; Music CD
Best price: $14.36
Gustav Leonhardt Jubilee Edition ImageGustav Leonhardt Jubilee Edition
Release date: 2008-06-03; Music CD
Best price: $34.97
Price in other shops: $34.98
50TH Anniversary Harmonia Mundi Image50TH Anniversary Harmonia Mundi
Release date: 2007-10-09; Music CD
Best price: $96.98
Price in other shops: $99.98
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles