Couperin: Les Nations, 1726

In 1726, François Couperin published four large Concerts, each with a title: La Françoise, l'Espagnole, l'Impériale et la Piémontoise. These concerts are always composed of a large Sonade (as the author calls it) - an Italian style sonata in trio introducing a French style suite. This work is presented by Couperin in a preface in which he confesses that some of the trios were composed and published a few years before, inspired mainly by Corelli. These trios were presented at the time as Italian, as Couperin had Italianised his name for the occasion. When composing his magnificent Nations over an extended period of time, he always linked his Sonades to suites in the French style. The Sonades are Couperin's earliest works, after the organ book. However, some of them were only published much later, in 1726, as introduction to the three Nations concerts. The Sonades perfectly illustrate Couperin's Italian style from the years 1690-1705. Thirty years later, he did not reject them or change a single note, except to develop and redefine some passages…

He even went further, when placing at the beginning of the suites (in the French style), he advocated the combination of styles. Couperin seems to have found his manner and style immediately, and held to it while developing it from within, without modifying anything essential. In this concert illustrating the conjunction of styles, so typical of French 17th century music, the essence of French style is presented in his Sonades and his varied and sophisticated suites of dances. Les Nations are certainly the high point of Couperin's chamber music and one of the summits of French chamber music.
(Philippe Beaussant from Concert Notes)

Original Recording: 1983