Couperin - Motets / Piau, Pelon, Fouchécourt, Corréas, Les talens lyriques, Rousset [Import]

François Couperin (Artist), Christophe Rousset (Artist), Les talens lyriques (Artist), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Artist), Sandrine Piau (Artist), Caroline Pelon (Artist), Jérôme Corréas (Artist), Florence Malgoire (Artist), Marianne Muller (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 6, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Virgin / EMI Int'l
• ASIN: B00000IG3J
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,935 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Quatre verset d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 11: Tabescere me fecit

2. Quatre verset d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 12: Ignitum eloquium tuum

3. Quatre verset d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 13: Adolescentulus sum ego

4. Quatre verset d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 14: Justitia tua in aeternum

5. Verset du motet de l'annee derniere: Qui dat nivem

6. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 4: Converte nos Deus

7. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 5: Numquid in aeterum

8. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 7: Ostende nobis Domine

9. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 8: Audiam quid loquatur

10. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 11: Misericordia et veritas

11. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 12: Veritas de terra

12. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 13: Etenim Dominus

13. Motet a sainte Suzanne: Veni sponsa Christi

14. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 1: Qui regis Israel

15. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 3: Excita potentiam tuam

16. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 9: Vineam de Aegypto

17. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 10: Dux itineris fuisti

18. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 11: Operuit montes umbra ejus

19. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 12: Extendit palmitos suos

20. Sept versets d'un motet compose de l'ordre du Roy: Verset 15: Deus virtutum convertere

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Before you play the first track of this disc, make sure you're in quiet surroundings and ready to listen closely. You'll hear a pure yet sensuous soprano voice slip gently out of the silence and sing a melody that manages to be haunting and virtuosic at the same time--only to be followed by a similar voice doing the same thing. The two voices coil around each other (with some gleaming suspensions) for a full minute before instruments join them. And that's just the beginning of this marvelous disc of motets by François Couperin, a composer better known for his keyboard and chamber music. Most of these pieces were written to accompany the Elevation of the Host (the most solemn moment of the Roman Catholic liturgy), so you won't hear much exuberance. You will hear an enchanting blend of piety and grace, as well as expert performances by Christophe Rousset's instrumental ensemble, tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt and bass Jérôme Corréas. The real stars of this record, however, are those two sopranos--Sandrine Piau and Caroline Pelon. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Privilege to be Able to Listen to this Music, October 29, 2004

By 

Leslie Richford (Selsingen, Lower Saxony) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Couperin - Motets / Piau, Pelon, Fouchécourt, Corréas, Les talens lyriques, Rousset (Audio CD)

François Couperin (1668-1733), known als 'le Grand' to distinguish him from his various musical relatives, has been well-served by the revival of historical performance practice, but mostly it has been his music for solo harpsichord or his chamber music which has been recovered from the archives and recorded. But like his contemporaries, Couperin also wrote sacred motets, and it is one of Christophe Rousset's merits that he has unearthed these from the collections of manuscripts at Versailles and given them a superb airing on this recording. Of the 21 pieces to be heard here, 19 are short 'versets' (also known as 'elévations') for use during the services at the King's Chapel in Versailles where Couperin was employed from 1693 onwards. The two remaining pieces are much longer: the motet 'Veni sponsa Christi' for St. Susanna lasts almost eighteen minutes and contains some of the most joyful music imaginable, particularly in its refrain 'Jubilemus, exultemus, resonet coelum plausibus'; and the last piece on the CD, the early motet 'Laudate pueri Dominum' lasts around twelve minutes. But I suppose it is typical for Couperin that he concentrates on perfection in the miniature forms, here using solo voices (occasionally expanded to duets or alternating) and a chamber-music style accompaniment (Les Talens Lyriques consist here of two violins, two traverse flutes, two baroque oboes, a bass viol and a harpsichord). The voices are modelled on what is known of the singers at Versailles, and Couperin actually named these in his manuscripts, many of the soprano parts having been written specifically for his young cousin Marguerite-Louise Couperin; Rousset's only compromise here is that where castrati are required in the manuscripts he does not use countertenors but his two wonderful female singers, Sandrine Piau and Caroline Pelon, whose pure, more or less vibrato-less high soprano voices make such an impact, particularly of course on the first track of this CD where their voices emerge from the silence and intertwine with incredible beauty without any instrumental accompaniment. That, however, should not distract from the equally fine performances by Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, high tenor, and Jérôme Corréas, baritone. This is, from start to finish, wonderful music, intended only for the ears of the King of France and his immediate entourage.

The recording was made by Radio France in 1993 at the Notre-Dame du Liban church in Paris. Occasionally I felt that the instruments, especially the harpsichord, could have been a little more present, the engineers obviously preferring to put the voices in the foreground. I also found listening to this disc on headphones slightly more convincing than over loudspeakers, but that may be just a question of volume. At all events, the disc is a quite an experience and I felt privileged to hear it.