Froberger: Suites de clavecin; Toccatas

Johann Jacob Froberger (Composer), Christophe Rousset (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Christophe Rousset
• Composer: Johann Jacob Froberger
• Audio CD (May 9, 1997)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
• ASIN: B0000007IL
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #690,772 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Froberger lived and flourished in the mid-17th century, and he was one of the first great German composers of keyboard music. But although his nationality was German, his style was more or less formed and influenced by the Italian school--Frescobaldi in particular. It's a fascinating fact, but you can get through a lot of music history up to the 19th century if you look at it as a series of ideas originating in Italy, further developed by composers in Germany and France. All of these pieces are short, striking, and full of original ideas. This was one of Rousset's earlier recordings for Harmonia Mundi, and it established him at once as an artist to be reckoned with. Good stuff. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Passion - yes; atmospherics and inner resonance - never, April 9, 2004

By	Phil Rogers (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

Here, Rousset rolls his chords and ornaments like they're dice, assuming he'll get lucky with his listeners. But a gaming table at Monte Carlo and the harpsichord are quite different beasts - each must dealt with in dramatically different fashions. Here, for Rousset everything is undaunted dash - there's no reflection, no quiet breathing/phrasing - little recognizable emotion unless maybe what - grandiosity? Most aficionados surely would consider this a highly uncharacteristic, over-simplified reading of Froberger's music. Yes, it appears that early music's "enfant terrible" is having one of his more "interesting" moments.

This is very odd, considering how utterly beautiful and profound were many of his efforts recording Francois Couperin's complete works for harpsichord. There (though, like so many of us, he often gave relatively humdrum performances on Couperin's harder-to-fathom, superficially more colorless pieces) he was often as sublime sounding as possibly anyone who has ever played the instrument; and was never close to coming off as obnoxious.

Certainly Rousset's interpretations cannot be faulted for not being passionate; but all the tunes here have the same stirring, emotional quality - the palette he is using is extremely limited - and everything is played, relatively speaking, at near breakneck speed. This is silly for the sarabands. It's ludicrous for the first track, which is titled "Plainte Faite a Londres pour Passer la Melancholie". Mr. Rousset has a right to assume his playing of this piece is for the purpose of sweeping the melancholic mood away with grand (muscular?) gestures; we have a right, and a duty to disagree.