Classical new release - Harmonia Mundi UK Distribution

Label: Glossa
File Under: Classical/Choral
Catalogue No: GCD920414
Barcode: 8424562204140
NORMAL Price
Format: 1 CD
Packaging: digipack
Paolo Pandolfo [viola da gamba]
Amélie Chemin [viola da gamba]
Thomas Boysen [theorbo & Baroque guitar]
Markus Hünninger [harpsichord]
François COUPERIN: Pièces de violes
Paolo Pandolfo and friends
RELEASE DATE
11TH MARCH 2013
The confidential, almost secretive, musical world of François Couperin is known through the innumerable emotional
connections made in his harpsichord works, but he was also able to produce the same sensations when writing for the
viola da gamba. Paolo Pandolfo has brought together on one new album on Glossa these works of Couperin’s full
maturity, demonstrating the composer’s spiritual and mischievous tendencies in equal measure (as well as his own
mastery of the subtleties of the gamba).
As well as the Plainte from the Tenth Concert Royal, there are two full Concerts from the collection entitled Les Goûts
Réunis which ask for two violas da gamba. These are included alongside what may have been Couperin’s final works,
the two sets of the Pièces de violes which, being supplied with a figured bass, call upon for the involvement of other
instruments such as theorbo and harpsichord.
Considered by the booklet essay writer, Philippe Beaussant, to be ranked as one of Couperin’s masterpieces, the second
Suite (which lay undiscovered for almost 250 years) contains an astonishing pair of pieces called Pompe funèbre
(Couperin’s musical testament?) and La Chemise blanche.
Paolo Pandolfo is joined in this recording – made in the French village of Rasteau – by a second gamba player in Amélie
Chemin, as well as by frequent collaborators from recent years in Thomas Boysen (theorbo, Baroque guitar) and Markus
Hünninger (harpsichord).