Brice Pauset: Louis Couperin

Lo spettacolo

This harpsichord concert is the first of a series devoted to the little‐known work of 17th century composer Louis Couperin.

Since the start of his residence at the Dijon Opera, Brice Pauset has cherished an interpreter’s dream: play over the course of several concerts the complete works for harpsichord by Louis Couperin, a composer for whom he harbours a profound admiration.

Posterity has not seen fit to give Louis his rightful place of prominence in music from the 17th century. Dying young, at just 35 years of age – before the birth of his more famous nephew, François – none of his 130 scores for harpsichord were ever published in his lifetime: they are known to us today only through two manuscripts (“Parville” and “Bauyn”), which appear to be copies made after his death and kept respectively at the University of California and France’s Bibliotheque nationale.

These pieces, which would have been used to make up dance suites, as was the custom at the time, are grouped by genre and by key. It is up to each interpreter to mix and match them to create his or her own specific programme of personal Suites, according to the logic, taste and intuition that guide the performer’s approach.

In this case, Brice Pauset has chosen to conclude each concert with a particularly emblematic work displaying the harmonic daring of the composer, the Chaconne in F sharp minor, which is unique in more ways than one. Present in only one of the manuscripts, the only piece composed by Couperin in this rare and complex key for the period, it is also the longest, his only pavane and could well be – in the image of those of his friend Froberger – a “tomb” in homage to one departed, of whom even the name is today forgotten.

Program
Suite in D minor | Suite in F major | Tombeau de Monsieur de Blancrocher | Suite in G minor | Suite in C major | Suite in C minor | Suite in A minor | Suite in B flat major | Suite in B minor | Pavane in F sharp minor