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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times.The new Louis Couperin disc is Leonhardt's first recording of music obviously very sympathetic to him since his memorable 1962 single side devoted to a suite in D major and the Tombeau de M Blancrocher (only the latter is duplicated here and, interestingly, now takes rather longer in the playing). The interpretations, both stylish and sensitive, are imbued with expressive quality that reveals unsuspected emotional depths in the Pavan in F sharp minor, arguably Couperin's finest piece, as well as in the movements of the three suites in A minor, C major and F major. The choice of suite components, the performer's task because the sources only group them in clusters of preludes and all other types by tonalities, is balanced both as to length and mood. The free preludes, notated as barless strings of semibreves, are most effectively realized, as are the two chaconnes in Couperin's grandest manner. The various unequal temperaments used, especially the one used in the Pavan's ton de la chevre, lend each tonality a distinctive savour. The harpsichord, Martin Skowroneck's re-creation of a late 17th-century French instrument like the famous Vaudry of 1681 in the Victoria & Albert Museum, fits the music like a tonal glove, for it is more transparent and less lush in sound than the later sort of clavecin. This is an outstanding record in every way.The reissue of Leonhardt's pioneering 1967 recording on three historic harpsichords in the Riick Collection at the Nuremberg Germanic National Museum is doubly welcome as offering enjoyable as well as edifying listening. The pieces performed are well chosen to display the tonal qualities of each instrument. The Carlo Grimaldi harpsichord of 1697, with its full but not over-resonant sound and an almost limitless capacity for subtle articulation, is the ideal vehicle for eloquent presentation of Italian and italianate works by Picchi, de Macque, Merula and Kerll. A pair of Dutch anonymous miniatures and two of Sweelinck's shorter keyboard works are brought to new life on an unaltered 1637 single-manual harpsichord by the elder Andreas Ruckers with a bright silvery tone that immediately justifies the great renown of that Louis Couperin Suites and Pavan. Gustav Leonhardt Harmonia Mundi/EMI Electrola 1C 065-99 871 Gustav Leonhardt an historischen Cembali Harmonia Mundi/EMI Electrola 1C 027-99 795
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