Couperin’s Music Fit for an Influential King

courtesy of Music & Arts Programs of America

Early this month Music & Arts Programs of America, based across the Bay in Berkeley, released its second album of performances by Stephen Schultz on Baroque flute and Jory Vinikour on harpsichord. The music consists of four suites published collectively under the title Concerts Royaux in 1714, all composed by François Couperin during his service to Louis XIV, King of France. All four of these suites feature Schultz accompanied by Vinikour. However, selected movements of three of the “concerts” include a second treble line, which is also played on a Baroque flute by Mindy Rosenfeld. In addition Alexa Haynes-Pilon provides continuo on gamba. There are also several extended solo opportunities for solo performance by Vinikour, reminding the attentive listener of the vast body of solo keyboard music that Couperin had composed.

Louis took a serious interest in the performing arts. We know that he performed as a ballet dancer; and, as Gonzalo X. Ruiz observed in his informative notes for the accompanying booklet, he “acted as an enforcer of both taste and performance standards that all at the court had to adhere to and live up to.” As Louis grew older, he stopped performing; and it is possible that these four suites were composed for his own “private listening” in his chambers. It took Couperin over twenty years of court service before he was allowed to publish any of his compositions; and, somewhat ironically, the Concerts Royaux collection was published only month’s before the king’s death.

Whatever the original listening circumstances may have been, where eighteenth-century chamber music is concerned, I am usually happier attending a performance of the music, rather than listening to a recorded account. Mind you, prior to the pandemic, there was a more than generous number of opportunities to attend such performances; and, with any luck, those opportunities will soon rise again. Thus, at the very least, I appreciate the opportunity to become acquainted with music that was previously unknown to me. Nevertheless, listening to this album reminded me of how much I miss being able to view musicians fully engaged in presenting this music to attentive listeners.