Mark Kroll’s Couperin Project: Volume Nine

courtesy of Naxos of America

Mark Kroll has now entered the final stretch in his project to record the complete keyboard works of François Couperin on Centaur Records. Volume 9 was released about two months ago, leaving only one CD remaining to complete the set. Curiously, this new album includes the last two ordres in the entire Pièces de clavecin collection, the 26th in F-sharp minor and the 27th in B minor. These are the shortest in the entire set, five pieces in the 26th ordre and four in the 27th. However, what makes these particularly interesting is that they were recorded at a “live” performance at the Museu de la Música de Barcelona on November 19, 2018. These two short ordres are preceded by the 24th ordre, consisting of eight pieces in A minor-major. Thus, the remaining ordres to be released are the fifteenth and sixteenth, which will probably be accompanied on the final volume with the allemande and eight preludes included as examples in Couperin’s treatise L’Art de toucher le clavecin (the art of playing the keyboard).

Once again it is helpful to consult the Dover Publications 1988 reissue of the edition of Couperin’s keyboard works collected by Johannes Brahms and Friedrich Chrysander for publication in 1888. The Dover English translations of several of Couperin’s titles can often be helpful, particularly in the 24th ordre. The third piece in this collection is a rondo with the eyebrow-raising title “Les dars-homicides.” It turns out that this translates into “the fatal darts,” leaving much to imagination of the listener. More cheerful is the lengthy title “La Divine Babiche ou les amours badins,” which Dover translates as “the divine little dog, or playful loves.”

As I have frequently observed, Couperin wrote these pieces for playing, rather than listening. Furthermore, judging by my own experiences, I would say that he was sympathetic to well-intentioned “amateurs” that enjoyed the diversion of exercising their keyboard skills, no matter how limited those skills may be. The idea of sit-still-and-listen music probably never entered Couperin’s mind. In this context I find that I have approached Kroll’s recordings for their pedagogical value, providing “remote guidance” when I turn my attention to playing any of the pieces in this generous collection of music.