Conversation: Gaspard Le Roux - Suites pour deux clavecins

by Justin Taylor, William Christie

Overview

The harpsichord music of French Baroque composer Gaspard Le Roux is rarely played, partly because listeners like to attach a biography to music, and for him, there is almost none. It is unknown where he was born, worked, and died. These two-harpsichord pieces also present difficulties in performance, explored in separate interviews with harpsichordists William Christie and Justin Taylor in the booklet. They may be played either as harpsichord works or as trio pieces, which has implications for the second harpsichord part; it may contain improvisational elements. This is played by the almost-octogenarian Christie, leaving the highly virtuosic first part to his protégé Taylor. So, there is plenty here to interest specialists and serious Baroque enthusiasts, but the album is also highly listenable for general audiences. As Christie points out, Le Roux's music owes little to Couperin's "often intimist art." His movements have simple dance titles, with none of the arcane descriptors of Couperin and the other French Baroque keyboard-music composers (arrangements of whose music are included here as entr'actes). Christie puts it nicely when he says the Le Roux is first and foremost a "symphonist." His textures are dense, with considerable virtuosity matched with some harmonic complexity. The short dances are especially distinctive in their density; sample the Gavotte from the Suite No. 3 for two harpsichords in A minor. Le Roux is capable of some highly atmospheric passages like the dramatic prelude in the Suite No. 1 in D minor. The two instruments used by Christie and Taylor, one from Le Roux's time and one modern, are impressively powerful and are capable of speaking for themselves without the intervention of Harmonia Mundi's booming church sound. However, this is likely to become a standard interpretation of these difficult works. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	06/28/2024
Label:	HARMONIA MUNDI
UPC:	3149020950913

Tracks

1. Suite no. 1 en ré mineur~I. Prélude
2. Suite no. 1 en ré mineur~II. Allemande "La Vauvert"
3. Suite no. 1 en ré mineur~III. Courante
4. Suite no. 1 en ré mineur~IV. Sarabande grave
5. Suite no. 1 en ré mineur~V. Menuet
6. Suite no. 1 en ré mineur~VI. Passepied
7. Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, LWV 43~Acte IV. Scène 5: Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs
8. Suite no. 2 en ré majeur~I. Allemande grave "La Lorenzany"
9. Suite no. 2 en ré majeur~II. Courante
10. Suite no. 2 en ré majeur~III. Sarabande gaye
11. Suite no. 2 en ré majeur~IV. Gavotte
12. Passacaille (Armide, LWV 71 - Acte V, scène 1)
13. La Ménetou (Pièces de clavecin, Livre 2 - Septième Ordre en sol majeur)
14. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~I. Prélude
15. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~II. Allemande
16. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~III. Courante
17. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~IV. Sarabande
18. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~V. Sarabande en rondeau
19. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~VI. Gavotte
20. Suite no. 3 en la mineur~VII. Menuet I - Double - Menuet II
21. Suite no. 6 en fa dièse mineur~I. Allemande gaye
22. Suite no. 6 en fa dièse mineur~II. Courante - Double
23. Suite no. 6 en fa dièse mineur~III. Sarabande grave en rondeau
24. Suite no. 6 en fa dièse mineur~IV. La Favorite
25. Les Voix humaines (Pièces de viole, Livre 2 - Suite no. 3 en ré majeur)
26. Gigue en sol majeur
27. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~I. Prélude
28. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~II. Allemande grave
29. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~III. Courante
30. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~IV. Chaconne
31. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~V. Menuet - Double - Double de la basse
32. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~VI. Passepied
33. Suite no. 5 en fa majeur~VII. Allemande

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Justin Taylor   Primary Artist,Harpsichord
William Christie   Primary Artist,Harpsichord

Technical Credits

Francois Couperin   Composer
Gaspard Le Roux   Composer
Jean-Baptiste Lully   Composer,Original Material
Thibault Guilmin   Harpsichord Technician
William F. Morton   Harpsichord Maker
Justin Taylor   Transcription,Interviewee
Julien Benhamou   Photography
Denis Herlin   Interviewer
William Christie   Transcription,Interviewee
Hughes Deschaux   Artistic Director,Mastering,Engineer,Editing
Marin Marais   Composer
Jean-Henri d'Anglebert   Composer
Charles Johnston   Liner Note Translation