Keyboard Music (Vol 1)

"Angela Hewitt has won widespread acclaim for her piano performances of Bach - much of his music incorporates an abstract quality which survives transfer to another medium. The challenge is greater with Couperin, whose style depends more overtly on the characteristics of the harpsichord. After I attuned my ears by sampling Rousset's 1996 harpsichord recording (Decca L'Oiseau-Lyre), the transfer to Hewitt's piano was surprisingly painless: both recording ambience and her Steinway are quite dry, and she is sparing with pedal. But her performance (and excellent notes) make plain her commitment to period style, above all in the agréments about which Couperin himself was so particular. It's a tribute to her outstanding control of touch that these ornaments flow so gracefully and naturally within the line.
In the ground-breaking Sixth Ordre, devoid of explicit dance titles, every contrasting movement is wholly absorbing. I reveled in "Les barricades mistérieuses," the piano drawing out subtle new details from the texture. Of the 18th Ordre's character-pieces, "Soeur Monique," exquisitely underplayed, contrasts with the wittiest description of "Les maillotins," with the right hand an octave up. Hewitt's final Ordre, No. 8, includes a Sarabande, seemingly timeless until its violent interruptions, and the passionate Passacaille, expanding hypnotically through its 18 repetitions, argued by some to be Couperin's finest keyboard piece.
Hewitt bridges the gulf between studio and home listener with uncanny directness. An outstanding disc."
- BBC Music Magazine.Pick of the Month (June 2003)

We are used to hearing the keyboard music of the great harpsichord masters Bach, Scarlatti, even Handel, played on the piano, but why not that of their contemporary, François Couperin 'le Grand'? Putting this question to Angela Hewitt initiated appropriate investigation, with the result that she has now taken the jewelled miniatures of the French maîtreinto her repertoire in addition to her celebrated Bach.
This is the first of three CDs devoted to the composer and is devoted to Ordres 6, 8 and 18 which include several of his most well-known pieces: Sœur Monique, Le Tic-Toc-Choc, Les Baricades Misterieusesand the famous Passacaille.