F Couperin - Les Nations

Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques

Partially eclipsed by the big Debussy and Bernstein celebrations, 2018’s 350th anniversary of Francois Couperin’s birth nevertheless brought some notable releases, including an impressive 16-disc Couperin Edition from Erato’s back catalogue, a reissue of Olivier Baumont’s complete traversal of the harpsichord works from the same label, and new recordings of harpsichord music from Bertrand Cuiller, Olivier Fortin and the late Blandine Verlet. Now, arriving only a little late for the party, one of France’s leading early music figures, Christophe Rousset, leads his Talens Lyriques ensemble in an impressive new account of one of Couperin le Grand’s major chamber music collections, Les Nations.

Published in 1726, but with much of the music dating from decades earlier, Les Nations comprises four pairs of sonatas and suites, scored for four parts: two treble instruments and a two-instrument continuo (bass line plus harmonic realisation). Each sonata-suite composite is given a title evoking the major cultural-political nations of continental Europe: La Françoise (France), L'Espagnole (Spain), L’Impériale (the Germanic Holy Roman Empire) and La Piémontaise (Piedmont, reflecting Italian influence). The musical styles, however, are Italianate (particularly in the introductory sonatas) and French throughout, and there is no attempt to evoke German or Spanish idioms – even the contrapuntal passages of the sonatas are in the ebullient Italian manner rather than the more sober German style. Indeed, the major external influence is the Corellian trio sonata, to which Les Nations can also be seen as a tribute.

As with many other recordings of these works, Rousset and his colleagues go for variety over homogeneity, including not just the ‘default’ trio-sonata scoring of two violins, harpsichord and string bass (here in the form of a viola da gamba), but pairs of flutes and oboes, with a bassoon and a theorbo bolstering the continuo group. This creates a dazzling range of possibilities, with even the multi-section sonatas varied from one tempo change to the next. Some may argue that the exquisite beauties of Couperin’s writing are best appreciated with a unified scoring throughout, but Les Talens Lyriques phrase so winningly, with gently inflected inégale rhythms, and offer such a dazzling array of textures, from the touchingly intimate to the almost orchestral (when all the instruments play together) that only the sternest critic could fail to fall under their spell.

So, for example, plangent oboes and bassoon colour the languorous poise of L’Espagnole’s Allemande, with occasional support from the strings, the graceful flutes of Jocelyn Daubigney and Stefanie Troffaes (one of the set’s chief glories) colour the same work’s Second Courante, while bowed strings plus theorbo emphasise Couperin’s ‘Gravement’ injunction in the following Sarabande. There’s a martial nobility to the concluding Passacaille, where all the instruments join together, particularly at the fanfare-like figures that come in the central section. Then again, for a dipping-in point to savour these performances at their finest, try the Rondeaux of L’Impériale and La Piémontaise, both marked ‘Gaiement’, which are guaranteed to bring a smile to the face.

Rousset’s harpsichord is heard in most movements, lending a pleasing brightness to the sound, which is further enhanced by the excellent recording made in the Banque de France’s marvellous 18th-century Galerie Dorée. It’s a shame that no details of the instruments are given, and Catherine Cessac’s otherwise admirable booklet notes could be twice the length given the music’s riches. But the music is definitely the main thing, and in these experienced hands it shines brilliantly, a lasting tribute to Couperin’s uniquely beguiling genius. Sometimes the best birthday presents arrive a little late, and are all the more special for it: such, happily, is the case here. A with so many of this group’s recordings on the Aparte label, no lover of Baroque music should be without this splendid (and generously priced!) pair of discs.