Couperin, F: Les Nations

I can honestly say that I really enjoyed every movement … This is my favourite disc in an uneven month’s listening for EMR. — Early Music Review, December 2012 More…

Release Date: 22nd Oct 2012
Catalogue No: AMY035
Label: Ambronay
Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Couperin, F: Les Nations: Premier Ordre 'La Françoise'

Work length21:12

$9.45

$11.70

$14.40

Sylvain Sartre, Margaux Blanchard, Les Ombres

I. Sonade (Gravement - Gayement - Rondement - Gayement - Gravement - Vivement - ir, gracieusement - Gayement)

Track length6:29

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

II. Allemande (Sans lenteur)

Track length3:27

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Première Courante (Noblement)

Track length1:28

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Seconde Courante (Un peu plus viste)

Track length1:21

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

V. Sarabande (Gravement)

Track length2:16

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VI. Gigue (Gayement)

Track length1:12

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VII. Chaconne (Modérément)

Track length2:52

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VIII. Gavotte

Track length0:53

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IX. Menuet

Track length1:14

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Couperin, F: Les Nations: Deuxième Ordre 'L'Espagnole'

Work length29:37

$11.05

$13.65

$16.80

Sylvain Sartre, Margaux Blanchard, Les Ombres

I. Sonade (Gravement, et mesuré - Très lentement - Vivement - Doux et affectueusement - Légèrement - Gayement - Air tendre - Vivement et marqué)

Track length8:43

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

II. Allemande (Gracieusement)

Track length2:51

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Première Courante (Noblement)

Track length1:38

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Seconde Courante (Un peu plus vivement)

Track length1:32

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

V. Sarabande (Gravement)

Track length2:44

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VI. Gigue lourée (Modérément)

Track length2:20

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VII. Gavotte (Tendrement, sans lenteur)

Track length1:01

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VIII. Rondeau (Affectueusement)

Track length2:24

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IX. Bourrée (Gayement)

Track length2:00

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

X. Passacaille (Noblement et marqué)

Track length4:24

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Couperin, F: Les Nations, Troisième ordre 'L'Impériale'

Work length29:28

$11.60

$14.30

$17.60

Sylvain Sartre, Margaux Blanchard, Les Ombres

I. Sonade (Gravement - Vivement - Gravement et marqué - Rondeau légèrement - Rondement - Vivement)

Track length11:18

$2.15

$2.60

$3.20

II. Allemande (Sans lenteur)

Track length2:39

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Première Courante

Track length1:37

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Seconde Courante (Plus marquée)

Track length1:46

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

V. Sarabande (Tendrement)

Track length2:26

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VI. Bourrée (Gayement)

Track length0:42

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VII. Gigue (D’une légèreté modérée)

Track length1:02

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VIII. Rondeau (Gayement)

Track length2:03

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IX. Chaconne

Track length4:49

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

X. Menuet

Track length1:06

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Couperin, F: Les nations, Quatrième ordre 'La piémontoise'

Work length19:37

$6.85

$8.45

$10.40

Sylvain Sartre, Margaux Blanchard, Les Ombres

I. Sonade (Gravement - Vivement - Gravement - Vivement et marqué - Air, gracieusement - 2e air, gravement et marqué - Légèrement)

Track length8:18

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

II. Allemande (Noblement, et sans lenteur)

Track length2:30

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Première Courante

Track length1:23

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Seconde Courante (Plus gayement)

Track length2:01

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

V. Sarabande (Tendrement)

Track length2:58

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VI. Rondeau (Gayement)

Track length2:27

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

François Couperin, Johann Sebastian Bach: Les Nations, quatrième ordre "La Piémontoise": VII. Gigue (Affectueusement, quoy que légèrement)

Work length5:42

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Sylvain Sartre, Margaux Blanchard, Les Ombres, Benjamin Alard

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With this newly researched recording of Couperin's Les Nations, Les Ombres, a Baroque ensemble of the new European generation, boldly cross borders and barriers to share a vision of spiritual union beyond national divide.

Couperin was the very first composer in France to produce a trio sonata in the style of Corelli, which he composed when he was barely 22-years old. Not daring at first to declare openly his admiration for the Italian genius, he did not sign his own name to 'L’Astrée', written around 1691. It was finally published in 1726, in the collection known as 'Les Nations', where it became the opening ‘sonade’ of La Piémontoise. To serve as the sonades of 'La Françoise' and 'L’Espagnole', he also reused two early works 'La Pucelle' and 'La Visionnaire'. Only the sonade of 'L’Impériale' was wholly composed around 1726. Each sonade is followed by a suite of dances in the French style, in the course of which the composer elaborates upon his mastery of ornamentation and interweaving lines. The assembly process is a success, and 'Les Nations' constitutes a single gesture: the ultimate réunion of all the output of François Couperin, from his tenderest youth to his ripest maturity.

The entrance of 'L’Impériale' glitters with a splendour we have never before encountered in the French master. He succeeds in fostering the illusion that he has submitted to the discipline of the sonata da chiesa all his life. The mastery of German counterpoint and the first stirrings of the galanterie later to characterise the Mannheim School make 'L’Impériale' the most modern of the four Nations. In homage to this stylistic highpoint, Les Ombres asked Benjamin Alard to record Bach’s organ transcription of the 'Légèrement' of the sonade from 'L’Impériale'. This Aria in F major thus hints at an imaginary encounter between the two composers.

A Baroque ensemble of the new generation, Les Ombres was founded by Sylvain Sartre and Margaux Blanchard in 2006 with the aim of closely linking musicological research and ‘historically informed’ performance. The group is strongly committed to young audiences, and places transmission at the heart of its artistic strategy. The first recording of Les Ombres, ‘Concert chez la Reine’ (AMY301) was released in 2010 and garnered much critical accclaim: ffff in Télérama, 3 stars in Classica, Top 5 on Classiquenews, 5/5 on Muse baroque.

The musical source used for this recording is the score published in separate parts by Boivin and engraved by L.H. Hüe in Paris in 1726, now held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The so-called ‘Lyon’ and ‘Paris’ manuscripts containing the first versions of the sonades enabled us to make a comparative study of ornamentation, articulation and figuring, while keeping a certain critical distance from these in the light of Couperin’s own warning in his preface of 1726 to Les Nations: ‘There have been a number of manuscripts in circulation in which I place little faith because of the negligence of the copyists.’

Reviews

Early Music Review December 2012

I can honestly say that I really enjoyed every movement … This is my favourite disc in an uneven month’s listening for EMR.

February 2013

The impassioned young bucks show kinship with older experienced heads (the Kuijken brothers, Musica Antiqua Koln and others)...Les Ombres splash colour around to an unprecedented extent by adding flutes, oboes, bassoon and theorbo (and guitar) to create ever-shifting, multicoloured performances that allegedly recreate the larger forces reportedly used by Couperin for chamber music at the court of Louis XVI.

22nd April 2013

discreet, beautiful and delicate...this recording is enjoyable and makes for pleasant listening

Couperin, F: Les Nations

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