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Louis-Nicolas Clérambault 1676–1749 Suite 1 I. 2 II. 3 III. 4 IV. 5 V. 6 VI. 7 VII. 8 VIII. 9 IX. 10 X.
11 12 13 14 15 16
Suite I. II. III. IV. V. VI.
in C Prelude Allemande Courante Sarabande I Sarabande II Gavotte Gigue Menuet I Menuet II en rondeau Menuet I da capo
2’22 3’37 1’32 2’44 2’49 1’41 1’28 0’29 0’31 0’27
in C minor Prelude Allemande Courante I Courante II Sarabande grave Gigue
2’24 3’58 1’29 2’04 3’15 2’12
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in D minor Prelude Allemande Courante I
IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.
Courante II Sarabande Gigue Chaconne Menuet Gavotte en rondeau
2’06 4’44 2’25 3’43 1’29 0’58
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Suite I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.
in G minor Prelude Allemande Courante Sarabande Gigue Gavotte Menuet I Menuet II en rondeau Menuet I da capo
1’31 2’10 1’21 3’11 1’12 1’11 1’00 0’43 0’42
35 La Vénitienne 36 Badine 37 Gavotte
2’02 1’37 0’49
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
Louis Marchand 1669–1732 Suite 17 I. 18 II. 19 III.
20 21 22 23 24 25
38 Prelude in G 3’32 4’49 1’29
Yago Mahúgo harpsichord
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Straddling two worlds: Clérambault and Marchand Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676–1749) and Louis Marchand (1669–1732) are important figures in the development of French harpsichord music. Historically they both fall between the early French school of harpsichordists from the 17th century – including founding-father Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, Louis Couperin (uncle of François Couperin ‘Le Grand’), Nicolas Lebègue and Jean Henri d’Anglebert – and those who flourished during the first half of the 18th century – François Couperin, Rameau, Jean-François Dandrieu, Duphly, Daquin, Balbastre etc. The fine harpsichord works of this between-the-schools period have tended to be overshadowed. Born in Paris into a musical family (his father was one of the Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roy founded by Louis XIII), Clérambault played the violin and harpsichord from an early age. Subsequently he studied the organ with André Raison, one of the most celebrated organists of his day, and composition with Jean-Baptiste Moreau. In his own career as a church organist Clérambault held successive appointments at Grands Augustins, Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Cyr and Couvent des Jacobins de la Rue SaintJacques. He also became one of the musical employees at Versailles, beginning as supervisor of the concerts arranged for Louis XIV by his mistress Mme de Maintenon, whom he married in secret in 1683. Clérambault’s royal connection inevitably led to further important posts in and around Paris, most notably as organist and music master of the religious college of Saint-Cyr. It was during Clérambault’s employment at Saint-Cyr – founded by Mme Maintenon in 1688 as an establishment for well-born but impoverished girls – that he developed what is now known as the French cantata. He became the undisputed master of this secular chamber genre, and his 25 examples are generally considered his finest compositions, but he also published five volumes of motets and other sacred works, organ compositions, seven trio sonatas (with descriptive titles) and an oratorio. Clérambault’s small output of harpsichord music consists of Livre de pièces de clavecin (1704), his first major work, comprising two suites. During this first decade of the 18th century the influence of Italian style swept across Parisian musical life, but when compared with Clérambault’s other works from this early period these two suites show very little trace. If one compares the suites of Clérambault with the suites of Marchand performed subsequently on this disc, Clérambault is generally less demonstrative and more restrained, Marchand grander, more declamatory and extrovert. Clérambault adheres to the typical form of the French keyboard suite – a prelude followed by up to ten dance-movements, all in the same key. Each of Clérambault’s preludes is written without barlines. It was Louis Couperin (of the previous generation) who initiated the unbarred prelude requiring a
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special kind of notation, though this was a natural descendant of the toccata-like prelude which traditionally opened a lute suite. The C major Suite continues with the traditional sequence of dances, amongst which the Allemande (marked ‘gay’) and Gavotte are each followed by a double, a simple type of variation consisting of ornamentation and elaboration of the original material. It is less common to find two sarabandes, here marked ‘fort grave’ and ‘gravement’ respectively. Following the Gavotte, the Gigue is again marked ‘gay’, and the concluding pair of minuets are nicely contrasting, the second with running quavers in the left hand. While the first Suite is prevailingly genial, the second Suite in C minor is darker and more nobly eloquent. The Prelude (‘fort tendrement’) gives way to an allemande marked ‘lentement’, a courante and a more substantial sarabande (‘grave’) with some surprising dissonances, no less powerful for all its emotional restraint. The robust, final gigue is marked ‘vite’. Clérambault’s Suite in C major was published around 1702–3, and the second Suite in 1704, both in Paris. Louis Marchand was the greatest French organist of his day, but his name is probably best known in connection with a relatively trivial incident. According to an unverified account he competed with J.S. Bach in the art of keyboard improvisation. Dresden Konzertmeister Jean-Baptiste Volumier proposed this contest while Marchand was touring Germany in 1717, but most sources suggest that Marchand failed to appear. Bach himself acquired some of Marchand’s works for his own personal music collection and is known to have admired the harpsichord suites. According to Charles Burney, Rameau stated that ‘the greatest pleasure of his life was hearing Marchand perform’. For that very purpose Rameau took lodgings opposite the Cordeliers Franciscan Monastery in the Latin Quarter, where Marchand was resident organist. Born in Lyon, the son of an organist, Marchand himself became a child prodigy on the same instrument. There are various accounts of his precocious successes in obtaining organ appointments (at such cathedrals as Nevers and Auxerre), though the evidence that he settled in Paris before the age of twenty contradicts these claims. Marchand’s problematic temperament – Edward Higginbottom has written of his ‘erratic, headstrong and dissipated behaviour’ – gave rise to several stories casting him in unfavourable light, though his reputation may have encouraged some exaggeration. Apparently he resorted to intrigue against fellow musicians in order to gain preferment. In 1691 Pierre Dandrieu, organist of SaintBarthélemy in Paris, was the target for one of Marchand’s scurrilous attacks, the suggestion being that
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he had made a prostitute pregnant. He also tried to claim authorship of one of Couperin’s most popular pieces. Marchand and his wife separated in 1701, and she repeatedly sued for financial settlement. Another source reports that Marchand’s move to Germany was occasioned by his banishment by Louis XIV following an impertinent remark about the king’s ears. As Marchand was not over-concerned with publishing his music, many of his compositions have not survived. Sadly he did not always bother to even write down his works and preferred playing for a few connoisseurs rather than for a whole congregation. It is known that he composed much more keyboard music (for both organ and harpsichord) than is extant, as well as sacred choral music and an opera on the subject of Pyramus and Thisbe. His two harpsichord suites were published in 1699 and 1702 respectively and thus are relatively early works. Although it was the lute suite which superseded the harpsichord equivalent, features of Marchand’s writing (such as close imitation) rather reflect his personal experience as an organist. The opening prelude of the Suite in D minor, unlike those of Clérambault in being written with barlines, leads to the traditional sequence of dance-movements. The pair of courantes initially share the same rhythm but otherwise are well contrasted. In the gigue from this first suite the second section begins with a free inversion of the beginning of the movement – a device that subsequently would become widespread in the gigues of the German Baroque. The D minor Suite is among the very finest of its period, and its grandest movement is the splendid chaconne. The G minor Suite is smaller in scale (every movement shorter than in the first suite), beginning with an example of the unbarred prelude and continuing with dance-movements of generally more modest character and simpler rhythmic profile than those of the first suite. Of the four additional movements included on this release, the exuberant Vénitienne appeared anonymously in a volume of 1707 and, with words, in subsequent song anthologies. It is widely attributed to Louis Marchand. Both Badine and the Gavotte (in G minor, though there is no apparent connection with Marchand’s suite in that key) are to be found in manuscript in the University of California’s Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, while the manuscript of the G major prelude attributed to Clérambault is in the Bibliothèque Saint-Geneviève in Paris. 훿 Philip Borg-Wheeler
Yago Mahúgo Chosen as the best Spanish artist of the year 2013 by the prestigious music critic Rubén Amón (El Mundo) and performer of one of the best recordings of the year 2013 (El País), keyboardist Yago
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Mahúgo was born in Madrid. He began his piano studies with Ana Guijarro. After obtaining his Piano Degree, he continued his postgraduate studies with Prof. Tibor Szász at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg (Germany), where he first came into contact with period instruments, and became a disciple of Prof. Robert Hill. Under Hill’s tutelage he achieved his Degree in Historical Keyboard Instruments (Harpsichord, Fortepiano and Organ) and his MA in Harpsichord and Fortepiano. Mahúgo has also studied with well-known performers such as Christophe Rousset, Malcolm Bilson, Kenneth Gilbert and Jacques Ogg. He has been awarded several prizes at international competitions, including the 35th International Harpsichord Competition in Budapest and the 13th Bruges Harpsichord Competition (Belgium), considered to be one of the most important early music contests. His concert activities have brought him to some of the most prestigious concert halls and festivals in Europe and the USA. In 2008, Mahúgo was invited by the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia to play the harpsichord for Gluck’s opera Iphigénie en Tauride, performing alongside tenor Plácido Domingo and conductor Patrick Fournillier. He has also performed as a soloist in several concert halls, including the Auditorio Nacional de Música – with notable performances of Manuel de Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto – as well as the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander, the Teatro Real Coliseo de Carlos III and the Fundación Juan March in Madrid, amongst other places. He has recorded for various TV and radio stations in Spain and around Europe (including RNE, TVE Bartók Radio and MTV). His first harpsichord recording comprised the complete harpsichord works of the French 18th-century composer Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (Brilliant Classics 94479 / OnClassical), which received excellent reviews from several magazines (Ritmo, Melómanos, Fanfare) and was chosen as ‘CD of the Month’ by the prestigious Scherzo magazine in April 2013. Mahúgo is the founder and conductor of the historical group Ímpetus Madrid Baroque Ensemble, considered to be one of the most important Spanish groups today. Their recording, dedicated to Rameau and his Pièces de clavecin en concerts, was released in September 2014 and was nominated for an International Classical Music Award (ICMA) 2015 in the category of Baroque instrumental music. Their last release, Geistliche Oden und Lieder mit Melodien by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, received several awards from the specialist press. Ímpetus plays regularly at some of the leading Spanish Festivals (among them Granada, Aranjuez and Oviedo), as well as in concert halls nationwide. Yago Mahúgo teaches at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and the ‘Teresa Berganza’ Conservatory in Madrid.
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Recording: 25–27 October 2014, OnClassical Studio, Bassano del Grappa, Italy Sound engineer & mastering: Alessandro Simonetto Editing: Alberto Rodríguez Molina Artist photo: 훿 David de Olalde Instrument: harpsichord after Johannes Ruckers (1638) Tuning: A=392 Hz (Rameau temperament) Cover: The Harpsichord Lesson (1660–9) by Jan Steen & 훿 2016 Brilliant Classics
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