Christophe Rousset - Marchand & Rameau: Å’uvres pour clavecin '2012

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Suite en Ré, premier livre: I. Prélude
02. Suite en Ré, premier livre: II. Allemande
03. Suite en Ré, premier livre: III. Courante I
04. Suite en Ré, premier livre: IV. Courante II
05. Suite en Ré, premier livre: V. Sarabande
06. Suite en Ré, premier livre: VI. Gigue
07. Suite en Ré, premier livre: VII. Chaconne
08. Suite en Ré, premier livre: VIII. Gavotte
09. Suite en Ré, premier livre: IX. Menuet
10. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: I. Prélude
11. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: II. Allemande
12. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: III. Courante
13. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: IV. Sarabande
14. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: V. Gigue
15. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: VI. Gavotte
16. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: VII. Menuet I
17. Suite en Sol, deuxième livre: VIII. Menuet II
18. Trois pièces: I. Vénitienne
19. Trois pièces: II. La badine
20. Trois pièces: III. Gavotte
21. Suite en La, premier livre: I. Prélude
22. Suite en La, premier livre: II. Allemande I
23. Suite en La, premier livre: III. Allemande II
24. Suite en La, premier livre: IV. Courante
25. Suite en La, premier livre: V. Gigue
26. Suite en La, premier livre: VI. Sarabande I
27. Suite en La, premier livre: VII. Sarabande II
28. Suite en La, premier livre: VIII. Vénitienne
29. Suite en La, premier livre: IX. Gavotte
30. Suite en La, premier livre: X. Menuet



Louis Marchand is the French composer who has entered legend for a musical duel
with J. S. Bach which he is supposed finally to have dodged. But to make
one’s mark on posterity that way is a sad comedown for so eminent a
composer of organ and harpsichord music. Although he died in the reign of Louis
XV, he retained in his style a nobility of tone wholly typical of the age of
Louis XIV.

The conception of harpsichord sound in Marchand is much closer to
d’Anglebert than to Rameau. Like his predecessor, he employs a profusion
of ornaments which considerably enrich the sustaining power of the sound and
mean that a string is kept constantly in vibration. He uses the medium-low
register in preference to the treble, thus bringing the harpsichord closer to
the theorbo or the bass viol. Rameau, for his part, immediately imposes his new
and revolutionary conception of music. Everything here breathes harmony. The
discourse is always deliberately clear, favouring transparency over the
bombastic effects of a more sensual harpsichord sound. The link that inspired me
to choose this programme for the sumptuous Donzelague harpsichord, which, it may
be recalled, was only just saved for the nation when I was still a student with
Huguette Dreyfus (I can still remember the inaugural concert at the Salle Gaveau
where my teacher played Rameau on it, among others) is, of course the city of
Lyon. Donzelague built his instruments in Lyon; Marchand was born and studied
the organ with his father there. Rameau lived in Lyon for a period in 1713,
composing his grands motets there. During his brief stay in Paris in 1706, he
took up residence opposite the Church of the Cordeliers where Marchand just
happened to be organist at the time, and attempted to solicit the favour of the
Parisian public by publishing his first opus at so early an age.

This Donzelague harpsichord, like the instruments by Nicolas Dumont from the
early years of the 18nth century, is extended down to the low F, thus abandoning
the 17th-century French tradition of the G’-B short octave. Hence it
allows the music on the present recording to sound in its full sonic and
declamatory amplitude.

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