For all the celebrations to mark the tercentenary of Purcell’s death last year (1995), his keyboard music has remained very much in the shadow of his works for the theatre and Church; yet the simplicity and grace of these more intimate pieces make them immediately appealing. Several of them are, in fact, transcriptions of earlier vocal works, and therein lies the key to their interpretation. Of the two performers, Olivier Baumont is the more flamboyant, invariably choosing faster tempi than Sophie Yates, and playing with fluidity, panache and humour. But Yates’s guileless approach really captures the music’s ingenuousness, even if she occasionally sounds a little too strait-laced. Her harpsichord (a copy by Andrew Garlich of an instrument made in 1681 by Jean-Antoine Vaudry, now in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum) could hardly be better suited to the music, with its sweet, warm sound, beautifully reproduced by the Chandos engineers, who don’t make the all too frequent mistake of recording the instrument too close. Baumont’s harpsichord has a sharper tang, and he also uses a virginals for the Grounds and individual lessons. Both artists have much to offer, and the final choice will depend on whether you prefer your Purcell plain (Yates) or piquant (Baumont).

Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (1601/2-1672) is generally regarded as the founder of the French harpsichord school. There have been a few fine anthologies of his works on CD, including those from Françoise Lengellé, Karen Flint and, best of them all I believe, a fabulous disc by Skip Sempé. However, this present two-CD set from Olivier Baumont is the first to bring us all the music from the composer's two Livres de Pièces de Clavessin, together with a generous helping of his manuscript pieces. And it adds up to a fabulous collection of works.

Although some people might think that the likes of a rediscovered piece of music, one or two mentions of the instrument picked up here and there, a rather startling meeting between the writer and the most famous harpsichordist of the day, along with a metaphor in the guise of an epitaph written by a poetess friend are fairly slender foundations on which to build a programme entitled “A harpsichord for Marcel Proust”, this recording is not about a harpsichord that Marcel Proust had at his home or that belonged to him - it is a harpsichord for Marcel Proust. It is intended as a tribute by a harpsichordist of today to the man who wrote À la Recherche du Temps Perdu and who lived during an all-too-often overlooked period in the instrument’s history.

Une compilation d'oeuvres du grand Jean-Sbastien Bach pour son pouse. Un incontournable de toute bibliothque musicale ! Cadeau Anna Magdalena Bach de son poux Jean-Sbastien, ce petit livre deviendra vite un album familial. Leurs fils (Johann Christian, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Gottfried Heinrich) l'utilisent galement pour leurs essais de composition. Pour autant, ce livre est aussi ouvert aux autres compositeurs de l'poque. On y trouve des partitions pour clavier (principalement des menuets, marches et polonaises) mais aussi des chants et des chorals. Cet enregistrement est servi par certains des plus grands artistes actuels de l'art baroque rassembls autour du claveciniste Olivier Baumont : Anne Magout, Christine Plubeau, Aurlien Delage et Julien Chauvin.