Sophie Yates - Armand-Louis Couperin: Pieces de Clavecin (2005)

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Sophie Yates - Armand-Louis Couperin: Pieces de Clavecin (2005)

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The New Grove Dictionary has entries on 10 musically active members of the Couperin dynasty, of whom Armand-Louis is, chronologically speaking, the eighth. Born in 1725, he was the son of one of the great François Couperin’s cousins, and held a number of organ posts in Paris, including the virtually family-owned one of St Gervais, on the way to Vespers at which he was killed in a road accident just a few months before the Revolution.

According to accounts he was a likeable man whose life was led free from strife and uncorrupted by ambition, and it is not fanciful to say that such are the qualities which inform his harpsichord music. Mostly rather rangy character pieces, though with a sprinkling of dances, they show the bold textural richness of the later French harpsichordist-composers, if without the galloping imagination of figures such as Rameau, Balbastre or Royer. Instead, they prefer to inhabit a contented rococo world, into which they bring considerable professional polish.

If that makes the pieces sound predominantly ‘pleasant’, well, so they are… as agreeable a body of solo harpsichord music as any. But they are not vapid and neither are they easy, and we can be grateful that this selection has fallen to a player as technically assured and as musically sympathetic as Sophie Yates. Whether skipping through the wide-spread arpeggios and scales of La Semillante, firing out the repeated notes of Les Caqueteuses or tumbling down the helter-skelters of L’Enjoué, she exudes invigorating virtuosity. Yet she shows delicacy, too, in the little gavottes and minuets, and sensitivity in the melancholy L’Affligée (a piece somewhat reminiscent of Rameau’s L’Enharmonique). Her harpsichord, a copy of a 1749 Goujon, sounds superb, being resonant without boominess and clear-voiced without excessive punchiness of attack. In its own way, this disc is one of La Sophie’s best yet.

Review by Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone

Armand-Louis Couperin is one of the lesser-known members of the family famous for its keyboard performance and composition. Just as with his cousin François, Armand-Louis was an organist, but his most well-known compositions are for harpsichord. Armand-Louis' work is generally not considered as sophisticated as François', but it is attractive, which is an indicator of its belonging to that period in music history on the cusp of the Baroque and Classical eras. This disc by Sophie Yates contains almost all of his 1751 collection Pièces de clavecin. Selections such as La Victoire and La de Boisgelou are primarily made up of phrases and sections that show off the performer's skill, while the Gavottes show off the sound of the instrument. La Victoire alternates melodic sections with those using parallel lines of music. La de Boisgelou has more of an improvised sound, with the right hand given lots of ornamentation over a left hand that is either counter-melody, simple accompaniment, or drone. The Allemande also has an unmeasured, improvisational feel to it, not quite what is expected of a traditional dance-named movement. Other pieces, such as Les Cacqueteuses, La Turpin, and La Semillante are full of personality. In these cases, it would have been nice to have translations of the idiomatic French titles. After learning that "Les Cacqueteuses" is "The Gossips," the music makes more sense. In fact, Yates' notes for the disc are not as informative as they could be for a composer who is not well-known. She talks about the mildly ostentatious nature of the music, which can be heard in her performance, but doesn't really explain what she means by Couperin's harpsichord music "looking both forward and back." Regardless, when she plays, she clearly brings out the interesting feature of each piece, whether it is fancy finger-work or character.

Review by Patsy Morita, Allmusic.com

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Sophie Yates - Armand-Louis Couperin: Pieces de Clavecin (2005)

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Sophie Yates - Armand-Louis Couperin: Pieces de Clavecin (2005)

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Sophie Yates - Armand-Louis Couperin: Pieces de Clavecin (2005)

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