Professeur du Roy Soleil

Description

Fabien Armengaud takes us on a journey to discover the mysterious Etienne Richard, professor of Louis XIV. The originality of his preludes, the poetry of his allemandes, the refined stature of his courantes, the melancholy of his sarabandes, his enigmatic gigue in four beats, make him a leading master who fully deserves his place in the Parnassus of French harpsichord. “Of all the Richards, Etienne is the one about whom we have the most information: master player of the spinet of the King's Chamber (1657), harpsichordist of Henriette of England, organist at Saint-Nicolas des Champs, Saint Jacques de la Boucherie, Saint Martin des Champs and especially, and especially, in the National Archives: ‘Her Majesty, taking singular pleasure in hearing the harpsichord played and in playing it herself, has chosen Estienne Richard to show him the method.’
Recording the “complete works” of Etienne Richard would not have been enough to fill an entire disc. That is why it seemed interesting to me to summon, around Richard, his predecessors, his contemporaries, his successors, in a word his “manuscript neighbors” such as Marais, de La Barre, Couperin, Rossi, Hardel, d’Anglebert…”