François Couperin: L'Apothéose de Lully & Leçons de ténèbres
Katherine Watson (soprano), Anna Dennis (soprano)
Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
Awards:
-
Record Review, 13th May 2017, Recording of the Week
The pictorial movements of L’Apothéose are introduced by a reciter and all are well characterise with unnecessary exaggeration. Indeed, at times, the performance errs slightly on the side of...
François Couperin: L'Apothéose de Lully & Leçons de ténèbres
Katherine Watson (soprano), Anna Dennis (soprano)
Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
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Awards:
-
Record Review, 13th May 2017, Recording of the Week
The pictorial movements of L’Apothéose are introduced by a reciter and all are well characterise with unnecessary exaggeration. Indeed, at times, the performance errs slightly on the side of...
About
L’Apothéose de Lully was Couperin’s hommage to his great musical predecessor and depicts the elder composer’s elevation to Mount Parnassus (where he plays duets with the shade of Corelli and, with Apollo’s blessing, effects a reconciliation between the contrasting French and Italian styles of the day). The Leçons de ténèbres were written for performance in Holy Week and demand—and here receive from Katherine Watson and Anna Dennis—vocal artistry of the highest order.
Contents and tracklist
IV. Descente d’Apollon: qui vient offrir son Violon à Lulli; et sa place au Parnasse
Track length2:30
VIII. Accüeil entre-Doux, et -Agard, fait à Lulli par Corelli, et par les Muses italiénes
Track length2:34
X. Essai en forme d’Ouverture: Lulli et les Muses Françoises, Corelli et les Muses Italiénes
Track length3:07
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Awards and reviews
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Record Review13th May 2017Recording of the Week
July 2017
The pictorial movements of L’Apothéose are introduced by a reciter and all are well characterise with unnecessary exaggeration. Indeed, at times, the performance errs slightly on the side of restraint, although it is unfailingly beautiful and much aided by excellent lute and gamba continuo accompaniment…the breath control of Katherine Watson and Anna Dennis in the long melismatic lines is stunning
28th April 2017
The delightful scenario of L’Apothéose de Lully imagines the composer Lully, one of François Couperin’s forebears at the court of Louis XIV, being wafted up to Mount Parnassus by Apollo. There, he meets the Italian muses, and the music becomes that synthesis of the French and Italian styles which Couperin so admired. All of this is captured with grace in Arcangelo’s playing under its founder, Jonathan Cohen.
May 2017
Superb…allows us to marvel at the adaptability of Couperin’s music
4th May 2017
those pesky French quavers are played with such a delightfully relaxed shrug by harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen and his four Arcangelo musicians. But you need know nothing of that to enjoy the grace and immediacy of the playing, or the charm of the music.
classicalsource.com July 2017
François Couperin's L’Apothéose de Lully (1725) – described in the original French as a “Concert Instrumental” – is an intriguing work, effectively summing up the composer's artistic and aesthetic manifesto.
