Les ombres errantes

Description

The surprising Iddo Bar-Shaï revisits Couperin on the piano. "I will honestly admit that I much prefer what touches me to what surprises me." This famous phrase extracted from the preface of his first book of harpsichord pieces could alone summarize the art of François Couperin. Between 1713 and 1730, three years before his death, he indeed delivered to the public four books of harpsichord pieces accompanied by evocative subtitles, each becoming an adventure full of pure poetry. To the harmonic formulas and somewhat austere combinations of his predecessors, Couperin prefers an art that is vivid or picturesque, tinged with a tender melancholy that, according to Wanda Landowska, leads the listener into a "enveloping and sweet happiness." He thus takes his place among musicians as one of the most profound and secretive there is. Serious, light, majestic, picturesque, the keyboard works of François Couperin, with their essential ornaments and sharp details, invite us to follow all the movements of the soul of the "most poetic of our harpsichordists," according to Debussy's expression. Interpreted on the piano, which brings its own color, these harpsichord pieces, in their different climates, retain all that makes their charm.