Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the many German composers who
advocated the "mixed taste", the combination of the French style and the
Italian style. Some of his compositions bear witness to his interest in
Italian music, especially the concertos and the cantatas. In his keyboard
music the influence of the French style is especially evident, for instance
in the form of the suite. It therefore makes sense to bring together one of
Bach's suites and a suite by one of the most prominent representatives of
French keyboard music, François Couperin.
The latter published four books with harpsichord pieces, in 1713,
1716, 1722 and 1730. They reflect the development in French keyboard music,
away from the suite with its conventional sequence of dances, towards a
series of character pieces. The various suites - or
ordres, as
Couperin called them - are quite different in this respect. The second book
includes seven
ordres which almost entirely consist of character
pieces, with the exception of the
8e Ordre. It is one of the most
traditional suites in that only two of the pieces omit the name of a dance:
the opening
La Raphaéle and the concluding
La
Morinéte. The second piece is called
L'Ausoniéne,
but that title is preceded by the name of a dance: allemande. The sarabande
has also an additional title:
L'Unique. The difference between this
suite and the other suites in Couperin's four harpsichord books should not
be exaggerated, though. Many character pieces have the rhythms of then
common dances. They reflect a difference in focus: "Each piece I have
composed has a purpose (...). The titles are a reflection of the ideas I had
at the time", Couperin stated.
Bach never made use of character pieces, although he knew and
appreciated Couperin's oeuvre. It was especially during his formative years
that he studied French keyboard music and copied some of them. In his many
suites he shows his admiration for the music he had become acquainted with.
Among them are the so-called French and English suites. He follows the same
pattern in the six partitas which he included in the first part of his
Clavier-Übung. The second part comprises two different pieces,
reflecting his advocacy of the mixed taste: the so-called
Italian
concerto and the
French Overture. In the former he transfers the
Italian instrumental concerto to the harpsichord, the second is a tribute to
the French style. However, the closing 'echo' is more Italian in character
than French. The suite opens with an overture which is followed by dances.
Bach doesn't follow the sequence which was common in the traditional suite:
allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. The allemande is omitted; the
ouverture is immediately followed by a courante. Then we get two pairs of
gavottes and passepieds respectively. These dances were associated with the
galant idiom; another such dance, the bourrée - again in a pair -
follows the sarabande.
One of the most notable features of this recording reveals itself if
one looks at the track-list: the opening
ouverture of Bach's suite in
French style takes 12 minutes, longer than any performance I know. This is
not the result of Ho playing in a very slow tempo but rather in the number
of repeats. The overture is in three sections: ABA, slow-fast-slow. After
the third section Jean-Luc Ho repeats the B section, and then we get the A
section a third time. This is common practice in performances of orchestral
suites which were so popular in Germany in Bach's time. Especially Bach's
four overtures (BWV 1066-1069) are usually played this way, but there are
also recordings of orchestral suites by the likes of Telemann and Fasch in
which the B section is not repeated. I wonder whether this is the first
recording where the double repeat is practised in this harpsichord suite. I
would like to know more about the reasons for that, but unfortunately the
issue is not mentioned in the liner-notes.
I have no objections to the double repeat if it is historically
plausible. However, it does mean that the overture plays for quite a
considerable time. That is a bit of a problem if the performance isn't very
compelling and sadly that is exactly the case here. The B part comes off
rather well, but the A sections are a little ponderous and awkward. In a way
this is a harbinger of what is to come. Ho tends to take rather swift tempi
as I concluded from comparisons with other recordings - among others
Pieter-Jan Belder (Brilliant Classics) and Pascal Dubreuil (Ramée) -
but the main problem is the lack of differentation. He doesn't articulate
particularly well and makes too little distinction between the good and the
bad notes. As a result his performances lack profile and sound a bit rushed.
More seriously, the rhythms are often rendered rather unclear. The most
striking example is the second bourrée from Bach's suite: the rhythm
is hardly recognizable. Ho stints on breathing space; he just goes on and
on. Even between phrases he hardly draws breath. For this reason these
performances are not very speech-like. The highlight of Couperin's suite is
the passacaille, a brilliant piece in several sections with the opening
section returning as a refrain. The different sections are not clearly
marked and the whole piece passes by as an endless, rather unstructured
wave. Michael Borgstede, in his complete recording of Couperin's harpsichord
music (Brilliant Classics, 2005), shows that there are better ways to make
this piece blossom. The 'echo' which concludes Bach's suite has little
elasticity. Belder is far more convincing.
As interesting as the confrontation between Bach and Couperin may be
this disc leaves me unsatisfied.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen