Couperin: L'Art de toucher avec la viole

Possibly written as a tribute to Marin Marais, who died in the year this masterpiece was published, the Pièces de Violes that François Couperin composed towards the end of his life constitute a significant part of his musical legacy, while also reflecting the reunion of "French and Italian tastes that make for the perfection of Music". As the nephew of Louis Couperin, Louis XIV's Ordinaire de la musique de la chambre for the viol, François shows himself in these pages to have been a refined connoisseur and fervent admirer of the instrument - and was perhaps himself capable of playing it, for he possessed two basses in his collection.

With this recording for Arcana, Guido Balestracci and L'Amoroso mark their thirtieth anniversary and celebrate celebrate one of the musical pinnacles for the viola da gamba from the Grand Siècle. While adding his personal touch to the genre of the pièce de viole, Couperin "le Grand" displays an intimacy with the instrument worthy of the great masters Marais and Forqueray.