Finger Pedalling in F. Couperin's Les Barricades Mystérieuses

[@PlayBetterJazz]

Best played version I’ve heard! Bravo

[@deannahowe9603]

Your finger-legato is splendid! I could have sworn you were using pedal, but no! Absolutely beautiful.

[@martinlee5604]

Thank you very much for this. This is one of three pieces that I am taking to Jackdaws at the end of June.

[@NicholasKuhne]

You are a funny chap, that pedalling for Les Barricades was splendid.

[@Informance]

Thank you so much, Nicholas!

[@NicholasKuhne]

Informance I tried your technique today on Les barricades and it totally worked. I have subscribed and look forward to new videos.

[@Informance]

@@NicholasKuhne Thrilled to hear that!

[@Marianofrv]

Admirable maestro muchas muchas gracias. Muy conmovedora pieza

[@franklinshouse8719]

This was written for harpsichord. The piano had not yet been invented in Couperin's time. On the harpsichord, there is no sustain pedal. But, the note would ring on as long as you held the key down after it was played, slowly dying away, until you lifted your finger. That's why the so-called "finger pedaling" is so effective in Baroque music. It provides for an illusion of a sustain pedal, when really, it is all done with the hands. And that is why Couperin notated it that way.

[@prototropo]

I love the novel harmonic progression at 06:47. Such moments of feeling alive let me realize why people might have swooned at soirees where such masters of emotional literacy were playing--Rameau or Couperin, Schubert or Chopin, Brahms or Borodin. That lovely progression--a memento at 09:10.

[@clementineclement5757]

Bravo, excellent rendering and explanations. I agree, this is one of the most beautifu, intriguing pieces by Couperin . Apparently around the world we are many fans enjoying it . I play it on purpose a little slower to really relish the exquisite quasi dissonances and overlaps ; there are plenty of suprising turns and changes, in an almost modern, avant-garde way. By the way this is quite a sensua, quasi sexy music, because the hackneyed explanation about the mysterious barricades being the eyelids is wrong, it's about more intimate body "barriers". Congratulations for your good job. And thks , this music is so needed and comforting especially in those diffcult days.

[@ScruffyTubbles]

Graham Fitch you really are a good player.

[@scottweaverphotovideo]

Very informative and beautifully performed. You observe Couperin's direction of "lively" and maintain a relatively even tempo. Jean Rondeau could learn a lot from you. I'm playing this on the piano as well and I noticed the overlapping tones of half notes. But how does this work on the harpsichord? I thought they cannot play sustained notes?

[@TechnoBoomer]

There is no pedal in Les barriades mystérieuses for a simple reason : the piece was written for hapsichord, an instrument with no pedal ;-)

[@paulsutton5896]

A "carpet of sound". Is that an early version of Phil Spector's "wall of sound".

[@paulsutton5896]

What kind of piano is that? It is very nice, but it is so different from the Feurich on another recording of "Les barricades".

[@CrowIIII]

Without the finger pedaling les barricades wouldn’t be mystérieuses.

[@elizabethhenning778]

1:14 "Not really piano music." Exactly.

[@clavessin12]

Yes, it sounds so much better on a harpsichord. For instance kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2SWnpmehrp9pK8

[@robertcook2572]

I don't see how any of this makes sense. It was written for a plucked keyboard instrument.

[@rogercarroll2551]

A bit slower, Graham; do not take the French "vivement" too literally.

[@PlayBetterJazz]

The tempo is perfect