Bach Festival 2022: Les Nations

Tickets

Cost: $36.00
Find tickets: here

Born in 1668, François Couperin was the only son of Charles Couperin, the harpsichordist and organist at the old Parisian Church of Saint-Gervais. During his lifetime, François Couperin, the most illustrious member of a distinguished musical family, was highly esteemed, both as performer (on the organ and the harpsichord), and as composer, and it was his contemporaries who conferred upon him the surname of “The Great.”

Les Nations is a vast project of extended trio sonatas in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four Ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe, France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont, and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata with its free-form virtuosity and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite.

Although the collection was published in 1726, some of the pieces were composed by Couperin some thirty or more years earlier, inspired by his enthusiasm for the newly-discovered Italian instrumental style, like many other composers of his generation.

This concert is generously supported by an Anonymous Donor & Bob and Jo Anne Tharalson.

Pre-concert talk: Join us at 6:45 p.m. for a pre-concert interview with Suzie LeBlanc and Marco Vitale, director of Contrasto Armonico. This talk is included in the live concert ticket price.

PROGRAMME

François Couperin (1668-1733)

L’Impériale

Sonade
Gravement
Vivement
Gravement, et marqué
Légérement
Rondement
Vivement
Allemande
Courante
Seconde Courante
Sarabande
Bourée
Gigue
Rondeau
Chaconne
Menuet

L’Espagnole

Sonade
Gravement, et mesuré
Vivement
Air. Affectueusement
Légérement – Gayement
Air tendre
Vivement, et marqué
Allemande
Courante
Seconde Courante
Sarabande
Gigue Lourée
Gavotte
Rondeau
Bourée & Double de la Bourée Précédente
Passacaille
Gigue Lourée
Gavotte
Rondeau
Bourée & Double de la Bourée Précédente
Passacaille

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