<<  -- 4 --  Rex Harley    MUSICAL RICHES

Such autobiographical extrapolations are not fanciful. Indeed, the ordres are full of references to the characters who peopled Couperin's life, whether friends, family, members of the nobility or fellow musicians, as in his tribute to the composer and viol player, Antoine Forqueray which begins the short, 17th, Ordre, in E minor. It is a beautiful allemande [listen -- CD 3 track 24, 1:05-2:14], grave et dévot indeed, and Spieth subtly draws attention to what is happening in the left hand without detracting for a moment from the unfolding melody in the right.

Another thread running through these pieces is the witty imitation of various noise-makers from the everyday world: knitters, little windmills, waves, clocks (ticking) and clocks (alarm). Whichever of these 'mimic' pieces Spieth is tackling, she is alive to their musical onomatopoeia. The alarm clock not only succeeds in jangling the nerves; its spring seems set to explode! And all the while we are reminded that the humble alarm clock is nonetheless a relative of the noble instrument which imitates it, for both are precise and ingenious mechanical apparatus [listen -- CD 10 track 6, 0:00-0:56].

For me, though, the tour de force in these mimetic items comes in two companion pieces, from Ordre 15 which evoke another musical instrument, the bagpipes: Muséte de Choisi and Muséte de Taverni [listen -- CD 10 track 20, 1:17-2:34]. We are given both the solo and double harpsichord versions, the latter with Zdenka Ostadalova, and it is with these combined forces that the nature of the bagpipes really emerges. Listening to these performances in tandem with another, earlier, recording by Christophe Rousset and Kenneth Gilbert, the latter sounds disappointingly 'four-square'. It's not bad, it just doesn't 'breathe' in the same way. What Spieth and Ostadalova do is to capture precisely the sound identified by Wilfrid Mellers: '... the drones create a dreamy effect because the hard edges of the tune dissolve into them.'

Ordre 14 takes the series of imitations into the animal world, with the sound of birdsong. Another bonus of this set is that you get to hear Le Rossignol-en-Amour in two versions, one for harpsichord [listen -- CD 9 track 20, 0:00-0:35], the other -- which takes the mimetic nature of the piece to its extreme -- on Baroque transverse flute, played by Charles Zebley. The transition from birdsong to a series of single notes on the flute, to the harmonic complexities of the keyboard realisation, provides an insight into the composer's acute ear for detail, which could transform natural sounds into 'refined' music, yet remain entirely faithful to the original source [listen -- CD 9 track 11, 0:00-0:48].

Continue >>

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.