Forqueray: Pièces de Clavecin - Blandine Rannou [Import]

Antoine Forqueray (Composer), Jean-Baptiste Forqueray (Composer), Blandine Rannou (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Blandine Rannou
• Composer: Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray
• Audio CD (April 8, 2008)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Zig Zag Territoires
• ASIN: B0012Y1IZE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,465 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In 2001, Blandine Rannou began her recording career with the complete harpsichord pieces of Jean-Philippe Rameau, the eminent 18th century French composer and harpsichordist. She has since recorded the foremost German master of the same era, J.S. Bach, and excerpts from L'Art de toucher le clavecin by François Couperin. Here her trajectory continues with the virtuosity and expressive power of Jean-Baptiste Forqueray's transcriptions of his father Antoine's pieces for viola da gamba.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark, Dense, Dramatic., September 28, 2011

By 

Douglas Weaver (Ypsilanti, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forqueray: Pièces de Clavecin - Blandine Rannou (Audio CD)

In Blandine Rannou's notes on her intepretation of these works, she describes how she goes back to the original viola da gamba pieces and recreates them from the solo gamba plus continuo parts instead of just playing the keyboard versions by Forqueray's son, which were, in some cases, simplifications of the originals. Those movements where she finds the keyboard version to be a genuine re-creation of the original, she plays as is. Interesting approach, and utterly convincing in these performances. This is not like any harpsichord music I've ever heard--it's down in the middle to low registers most of the time, with thick, dark textures, yet never muddy. You can virtually hear the gambist digging into the low strings in the way she rolls the chords. This is muscular music and music making, and I'm enjoying it tremendously. The slower, introspective movements are taken at an expansive pace that doesn't drag, but allows the lines to unfold in their own time. Everything here works for me, the playing, the clear sense of character each movement conveys, but especially the way the pieces have been re-imagined for the keyboard, much like a good poetry translation is a re-creation of the original poem in a new languagen, not just a transliteration.