Released 1967 by Supraphon SUA ST 50807 stereo
Recorded 26-29 September 1966 at the Domovina Studio, Prague, source
(in the documentation of the vinyl only the Supraphon studios without dates are mentioned)
Musical direction: Zdenek Zahradnik
Sound and cut: Miloslav Kulhan
Cover © Josef Kalousek 1967
Sleeve note © Christopher Hogwood and Ludmila Vrkočová 1967

Side 1
00:00 1. Les tambourins
01:53 2. La fleurie ou La tendre Nanette
04:39 3. L’Amazone
06:25 4. Les tricoteuses –
08:59 5. Les barricades mysterieuses
11:20 6. Menuets croises
14:21 7. Les vendangeuses
16:37 8. Les bergeries
20:32 9. La triomphante

Side 2
23:21 1. Le carillon de Cythere
27:21 2. Le tic-toc-choc ou les Maillotins
29:43 3. Musette de Choise’ – Musette de Taverny
34:06 4. Les petits moulins a vent
36:12 5. Le bavolet flottant
38:21 6. Passacaille

The four: books of “Pieces de Clavecin” which Fran~ojs Couperin published between
1713 and 1730 represent the culmination of the French school of harpsichord writing,
and, together with his tutor-“L’Art de toucher Ie Clavecin” (1716)-document one of the most stylised and refined facets of art durin, ‘Ie grand siecle’.
Unlike the Italians and Germans, the French clavecinists had never tried to rival the sonority of the organ or the variety of the orchestra; rather, like the lutenists before them, they had taken advantage of the fragility of their instrument and sought to create, through its evanescent tones, scenes and portraits evocative of their precieux society. From lutenists like Denis Gaultier and Mouton , Chambonnieres, the first of the great keyboard writers, inherited an elegiac, improvisatory style; many devices of lute tech·
nique (in particular the broken chord figuration -‘Ie style luthe’) found their way into his standardized succession of dance movements -the beginning of the suite. His pupils and successors (Louis Couperin, d’ Anglebert, le Begue etc.) explored further the lutenists’ free.prelude and rondeau forms, and shared their delight in fanciful titles -a reflection of the period’s love of the obscure and cryptogrammatic.
The four volumes by Couperin “Le Grand” were grouped into twenty· seven Ordres, loose collections of as many as twenty movements, arranged in a sequence of keys to facilitate the tuning of the instrument almost all of them bear programmatic or descriptive titles, and more than two-thirds are in the favourite rondeau form – a recurring refrain separated by varied couplets. “In the composition of my pieces I always had a definite object in mind: the occasions which suggested the ideas were of various-natures, but in each case the titles correspond to them … The pieces pertaining to these titles were portrayals which were considered rather good likenesses, and most of the advantageous titles were to express the amiability of the originals rather than the success of my copies” (Introduction to Book I, 1713). Like all the French composers, he gives precise instructions for the interpretation of the exceedingly intricate ornamentation with which his phrases are embroidered; in all, refinement and ‘good taste’ are to be preferred to virtuosity and declamation.

#ZuzanaRůžičková