Jacques Duphly: Complete Works for Harpsichord [Box set]

Jacques Duphly (Composer), John Paul (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: John Paul
• Composer: Jacques Duphly
• Audio CD (October 18, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Lyrichord Discs Inc.
• ASIN: B000AQKXV0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,078 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Jacques Duphly died in 1789 the day after the storming of the Bastille. He is the very last of the French Harpsichord School which had lasted for nearly 200 years. His music was lost in tbe chaos of the French Revolution and did not come to full light until near the end of the 20th Century. His 4 books of harpsichord pieces (published between 1745 and 1768) contain 46 separate works which are as luscious as they are varied. They run the full gamut from the exquisitely crafted dances of the High French Baroque to the Galant\Roccoco style which rapidly took over the musical world after 1750. Here for the first time is a milestone recording of Du Phly's complete harpsichord pieces which demonstrate his extraordinary range and diversity over a long and distinguished career. Magnificent in their craftsmanship and also profoundly soulful these 46 examples of the harpsichordist's art provide a fitting conclusion to two centuries of French Harpsichord Music. Newly recorded in a lush spacious acoustic of at Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, Ms by engineer and the instrument's builder, Anden Houben.

The harpsichord used for this recording is an Anden Houben double (8, 8, 4) completed in 2000. It is an adaptation of the often-copied Antoine Vaudry instrument of 1691 (original housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) with the spine extended by four inches. The instrument is non-transposing, and is thus permanently pitched at A=392. The temperament used throughout the recording is Kirnberger III.

Contents: Premier Livre (1744) Deuxiéme Livre (1748) Troisiéme Livre (1758) Quatriéme Livre (1768)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Long-Awaited Resource At Last!, November 12, 2005

By 

Gerard Tango - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jacques Duphly: Complete Works for Harpsichord (Audio CD)

John Paul has made a career of mastering the late French baroque clavecinists, and now has produced a complete works of Jacques DuPhly truly worthy of the name. His performance style, harpsichord, and the particulars of the recording site and technology (no post processing) put this above other complete DuPhly efforts already released (on ADDA/Radio France, 1988) or pending (on Centaur). I've heard Paul live on Mississippi Public Broadcasting performing from DuPhly's Book 1, and was captivated by the momentum and yet delicacy of his playing. This is a 3CD set that any baroque/harpsichord/keyboard afficionado will want for his or her collection.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vely Nice, June 20, 2009

By 

Fernand Raynaud (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jacques Duphly: Complete Works for Harpsichord (Audio CD)

On occasion you have to write a few words to counter others. Mr McCarthy's review of this recording is unfair. This is a very fine recording of important music by a good player on an excellent harpsichord. I appreciate Mr McCarthy's flagrant erudition, but the truth of the matter is that none of that really matters. John Paul is playing these pieces, whose interpretation is open to a lot of debate, as he understands them. His interpretation is sensible and it's enjoyable. If you just listen to the first track, all of Mr. McCarthy's points are put to rest. It's not true that the playing is in any way metronomic, stiff, or lacking in historically informed technique. If Mr. McCarthy would care to play us HIS interpretation, we can argue about subtleties. If anything, to my ears, the playing is sometimes a little fast and choppy, and the microphones are a little too far from the instrument to convey the intimate detail of Mr Paul's interpretation. But it's absurd to discourage purchasing this wonderful set on the basis of such issues. Many tracks, such as the final Chaconne, are unconditionally stunning. As to the instrument, it has plenty of the requisite French "bloom", even more than you would expect from a copy of an early French instrument; nobody would confuse it with a typical Flemish, Italian or German. The notion that all French harpsichords of the late 18th century sounded a certain way is likewise indefensible, and what remains is whether you like the music.

It is a music worth knowing. Duphly was a post-baroque composer, but his style does not resemble the work of, say, Haydn, not merely in being focused on the harpsichord. He continued, in the footsteps of Couperin and Rameau, the great Harpsichord tradition of 17-18th century France that ended with the Revolution (Duphly died on the day they stormed the Bastille). While adopting what to our ears is the more predictable modulation and thicker left hand accompaniment of the Classical era, his pieces retain the wonderful density and embedded melodies of the earlier harpsichordists, as well as the traditional references to other composers, in his pieces and his titles. His teachers included J.J. Rousseau (yes, THAT one), and his closest musical relative is probably Balbastre, who, in turn, had been a student of Rameau, and only survived the days of the guillotine by writing revolutionary kitsch to please the masses. I hear a foreboding sense of the tragic closing of an epoch in Duphly, the final chapter of over a century of unprecedented sophistication in music, literature, and the sciences that (perhaps) inexorably headed towards the seizure of power by little people with a propensity for simpler pleasures, such a decapitating effete aristocrats and hurling their harpsichords from balconies. When, in 1809, a hard winter led the staff at the Paris conservatory to search for firewood, they burned the remaining magnificent harpsichords that had not been vandalized by the revolutionaries, as "obsolete" (in light of the piano). Thus began the night of the harpsichord that lasted until the mid twentieth century and the Rediscovery of traditionally designed instruments and Historically Informed Performance. It is with great pleasure that I greet recordings of long forgotten masters, such as this complete edition of Duphly's harpsichord pieces. Let us not quibble -- let's rejoice and enjoy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent interpretation., July 6, 2010

By 

Clavecin français (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jacques Duphly: Complete Works for Harpsichord (Audio CD)

Magnificent and very elegant interpretation. This is the best interpretation of Duphly's harpsichord music I have ever heard and it is also the most interesting harpsichord recording of last years. Bravo Maestro John Paul! Great harpsichordist!