Blandine Verlet (harpsichord) Louis Couperin, pièces de clavecin

[@ronaldmckean3177]

Gorgeous playing

[@Nesomora]

Blandine....🎹💕✨

[@briancornish2076]

I have this vinyl from the 70s, subsequently transferred to a CD then an mp3 on an iPod. Music that stays with you forever. Now on KZbin, I should not have taken all those pains

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

I know all those efforts to get finally a decent digital recording from vinyl that stays with you during walking and cycling. It is for me the same, and you never know if someone else is doing the same thing. Since I did it for myself, I thought to publish it for everyone to save the trouble. Sometimes even record companies reissue older recordings, as they did with Blandine Verlet. Most of her work you can find at Spotify since January 2022, which is a blessing, but you never know.

[@_PROCLUS]

Blandine Verlet 1942 - 2018 ... Born in Paris into a musical family, she was the seventh of ten children, and in 1957 gained admission to the Conservatoire de Paris, studying harpsichord with Huguette Dreyfus in Paris, Ruggero Gerlin in Siena and with Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University. ... She is perhaps best known for having played the music of François Couperin, displaying exceptional sensitivity and imagination. Verlet recorded Couperin's complete works in the 1970s and 80s, and in late 2011 she returned to re-record five 'ordres' on the period Henri Hemsch harpsichord ... WIKI

[@Pony_ezpumi]

purity and calm, with Blandine... Thank you Harpsichord Vinyl Gallery.

[@paulcaswell2813]

I also love her honesty in the studio. Her recording of Les Baccanales from her complete F. Couperin has a glorious 'wrong 'un' in it. Most players would have had a re-take, but Blandine just carried on regardless. A lovely player :-)

[@paulgrad5183]

Harpsichord on vinyl records has such a brilliant tone quality. I like Verlet.

[@frederickvondrasek5618]

...thanks millions for posting this. Any other OP Verlet you could come up with would be very welcome, but thanks much for this and all of the other wonder stuff I am just starting to discover on this remarkable site...

[@_PROCLUS]

Thank you very much for the great upload

[@achenpigeon]

Ah, thank you! I was looking for this recording, to not much avail. I'll hopefully comment more after I devour it!

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

Would be nice. I know the famous Hemsch (from the Bayerische Museum nowadays as you told me before) might be historically not the correct instrument (and she later recorded it on a different instrument) but those basses on this recording are so full and deep that I associate it with 'nobility' in my perception although the passacaglia and chaconne might be a bit over the top ;-) Job well done imho!

[@paulcaswell2813]

The big French mid-late 18th century instruments may not be authentic, but they can take on anything, and give a nobility matched by few (only the very greatest of the Flemish).

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

You are right Paul. Sometimes I really love the sound of the instrument whatever is played and than Louis Couperin as the great composer is the extra bonus as the recording quality and the performance of the player.

[@paulcaswell2813]

And we then get the likes of Handel, Rameau, and Duphly, who, I think, put music second to the instrument! I really do think that they just loved the sound of the instrument, and wrote for it, with the technicalities of music coming second at times!

[@paulcaswell2813]

What is the great Duphly chaconne, if not revelling in harpsichord tone?!

[@beasheerhan4482]

Sir, I thank you so very much for this posts, and the many others, as well. I have always loved Miss Blandine's playing of L. Couperin, though, that 'ravaled' Colmar Ruckers is such a grumpy and unpleasant instrument, in it's current incarnation, that it has always put a bit of a damper on those recordings she made of this composer for Astree. Until tonight, however, I did not know that Miss Blandine prefacet those recordings by this one here, and what a treat this is, as this Hemsch is in tip-top 'unravaled' state, and speaks this musick better than the pre-Vaudry instruments, with which Monsieur Louis was doubtlessly stuck, during the time he was composing these timeless pearls. Also, her accelerandi, in this recording, are even more brisk and predominant than in the Astree recordings, a quality which this very grave repertoire craves, and which makes this LP a sheer delight. Thank you, again, and God bless you and yours, Sir!

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

Madam, It is such a privilege to make some one happy with such a small effort. That is exactly the reason why I try to make these almost forgotten treasures of recordings available again in their historical context of the time by inserting all the documentation as well. It is a delight to see that even a connoisseur as you most definitely are, can be touched by a dusted and forgotten recording. Happy listening.

[@beasheerhan4482]

No, Sir, the privilege is all mine. I have enjoyed your channel, so many many times, only I was not able to comment, something which has changed. Thank you for going to all this expence and trouble to make a fabulous digital online library of harpsichord recordings. I only wish that someone would, one day, do this for the lute. Lute aside, you have certainly given me much joy, and I have never met you! Crazy digital life! Thank you, too, for speaking in my language. Blessings to you and yours, Sir!

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

Madam, with the lute music you have found a weak spot of mine too. It is rather logical with *_the Style brisé_* in mind. Maybe when I am retired and still alive I will start digitalizing my vinyl early lute collection as well although it is not as extended as my vinyl early keyboard collection.

[@beasheerhan4482]

Wow, I am lucky again, Sir. Yes, of course, I regard Le Style Brisé as the most sublime aspect of composition, because it conveys contrapuntal shapes, without sounding forcet or too busy on the instrument. Perhaps the great album I ever heard, though many decades have passt since I heard it, was an album on the Turnabout Vox label, called, 'French Lute Musick', it played by an obscure German professor, by the name of Michael Schaffer, who died very young in a car crash. That album, recorded in the 1960s, really changed my inner life, as, ever after, I saw musick from the perspective of a 'The Broken Style'. Thank you, again, and be well!

[@paulcaswell2813]

Tonally, my favourite instrument played by Blandine is the Donzelague used for some her of her François recordings. Lovely instrument.

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

*_The rest of the documentation in the Spanish language 1/2_* Atendiendo al hecho de que, durante el siglo XVI, el laúd constituyó el punto iocal de la música doméstica franCesa, la influencia del mismo sobre el subsiguiente desarrollo creativo de composiciones para instrumentos de teclado, específicamente para el clavecín (

[@ChildfreeMatto]

I just find the French composers to be absolutely bewitching. The music for the harpsichord is beyond sublime...hard for me to fully describe. As if the music written fits an instrument soo well that to play it on a piano is an utter travesty...Just my humble opinion though.

[@TheGloryofMusic]

It's not only a matter of tone quality, e.g., how Couperin takes advantage of the harpsichord's decay, but meantone temperament is critical as well. LC was a musical genius of the highest order, and, like Chopin, was sui generis. I had a conversation with a well-known harpsichordist (whom I won't name) who claimed that LC's harpsichord music differed little from that of Chambonnieres, and I was amazed.

[@stephenchurley2438]

I agree. Louis Couperin's music is quite unlike Chambonnieres. He speaks in a direct and personal way which is comparable with Chopin, and his music has a freedom which allows it to work in a wide range of interpretations. Only Froberger, another musical genius, can stand alongside him when it comes to 17th century harpsichord music.

[@paulcaswell2813]

One forgets the early part of the century - dominated by the later virginalists. Certainly Gibbons and the last of the school, Tomkins, need to be discussed here among the finest writers for the instrument in the 17th century.

[@paulcaswell2813]

And although written c.1590, Byrd's 'Lesson of Voluntarie' in Ladye Neville still rates with me as the greatest piece of keyboard music written pre-Bach.

[@stephenchurley2438]

That's true for the early part of the 17th century. But L Couperin and Froberger (and also Weckmann) are the stars of the latter decades. Moving further on into the 17th century I wouldn't want to be without Bohm and Buxtehude. Bohm's harpsichord music is superior to Buxtehude's which I find a little disappointing, but Buxtehude's organ works are superb.

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

*_The rest of the documentation in the Spanish language 2/2_* Gracias al aparente arreglo polifónico, la inmediata Allemande (danza alemana en compás binario) despliega un grado apreciablemente superior de estilización. La Courante (danda rápida), dividida principalmente en dos partes, que tuvo su apogeo en Francia entre 1610 y 1660, está basada sobre la popular figura rítmica de una negra con puntillo segui- . da de tres corcheas o sobre el cambio entr(._ una primera y segunda negras con ,puntillo seguidas de corcheas. La Sarabande se destaca por su tempo ponderado, figurando ocasionalmente la acentuación sobre la segunda parte del compás. La conclusión de la primera Suite (Re menor) y de la tercera (Fa mayor) consiste, en ambos casos, en una Chacona, mientras que la de la segunda (Do mayor) es una Passacaglia. Ambas formas están conectadas entre sí en lo que concierne a su carácter, como se sobreentiende por la mutua ornamentación ayudada de coplas intercaladas a manera de estribillo. Los movimientos libres, que tienen lugar en cada ocasión después de la Sarabande y antes de la Chacona, se encuentran en las suites primera y tercera. En la primera de las mencionadas, el Canario (danza rápida), adoptado en un ritmo punzante -originalmente, una danza exótica para pare; as del siglo XVI-, es seguido por la Vuelta (danza cortesana de carácter rápido para pare;as), que disfrutó de una enorme popularidad desde la segunda mitad del siglo XVI hasta comienzos del XVII. Con una referencia al animoso caráct(r de los pastores, Couperin añade una Pastorella, que, con su sencillez de armonía y línea melódica, es uno de los más simples movimientos, lo que también puede predicarse de los dos precedentes. La tercera suite contiene un breve «Branle de basque» en dos partes. El carácter popular de esta vie;a danza es subrayado por un ritmo vivaz y una alegre melodía. Elta es sucedida por una Gallarda en dos partes cuya melodía está marcada por un carácter ;uguetón. Dos composiciones independientes han sido intercaladas entre estas dos suites: La Piamontesa (La menor, compás binario), una pieza característica en dos partes que se mantiene en un tiempo moderado, dedicada por Couperin a una dama no específicamente identificada, de la provincia del Piamonte, del . Norte de Italia. La Pavana (danza cortesana de paseo; Fa sostenido menor; compás de 4/4), en tres partes, recuerda por su estilo grave las T ombeaux (piezas instrumentales en memoria de difuntos de la nobleza), debidas a la pluma de ]. ]. Froberger (1616-1667). El cultivo de estas suites y movimientos individuales, resplandecientes en todos sus colores, y cuyo panorama -al revés de las formas cíclicas, tales como sinfonías, conciertos y sonatasera dilatadamente amplio, fue alentado particularmente en las numerosas casas principescas y estamentos nobles. Eran interpretadas, entre otros, por músicos de la corte, orquestas privadas y los propios con;untoS de ópera de la nobleza.

[@gildadimarco2462]

Una bellezza raramente riscontrabile nelle interpretazioni della musica per clavicembalo.

[@HarpsichordVinylGallery]

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