Only five CDs remain to be accounted for in this series of articles about The New Gustav Leonhardt Edition. These account for French and Italian composers, along with two tracks of anonymous sources. The only vocal music appears on a CD consisting primarily of madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi. These are coupled by the BWV 209 cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the only two settings of Italian texts by that composer. The title of BWV 209 is Non sa che sia dolore (he knows not what sorrow is). The other Italian CD consists primarily of diverse selections by Girolamo Frescobaldi, along with Leonhardt playing four of Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas.
The French CDs serve up a generous assortment of music by Jean Philippe Rameau, including the set of five short collections identified as Pièces de clavecin en concerts. Ironically, the track listing gives no indication of the keys associated with these five compositions, whose movements, for the most part, have programmatic titles. Another CD includes six selections taken from the three Rameau volumes collected under the title Pièces de clavecin. That CD also includes the eight preludes from François Couperin’s L’art de toucher le clavecin. None of compositions in Couperin’s 27 ordres (suites), collected in four published volumes, were included. On the other hand an entire CD is devoted to the Opus 3 of Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, a collection of six three-movement sonatas.
Those familiar with any of the compositions on these five CDs will probably enjoy listening to Leonhardt’s approaches to interpretation; those lacking such familiarity would probably benefit from albums that include booklet texts that would assist orienting the listener.
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