Charles Dieupart after 1667–c.1740
Compact Disc 2
49’35
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Suite No.2 in D I. Ouverture II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Gavotte VI. Passepied VII. Gigue
2’47 3’26 1’36 2’46 0’59 0’51 1’35
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Suite No.4 in E minor I. Ouverture II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Gavotte VI. Menuet VII. Gigue
4’18 3’46 1’32 2’37 1’09 1’27 1’30
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Suite No.1 in A I. Ouverture II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Gavotte VI. Menuet VII. Gigue
5’04 4’36 2’01 3’06 1’01 1’13 1’48
Six Suites de clavecin Compact Disc 1
2
52’14
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Suite No.6 in F minor I. Ouverture II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Gavotte VI. Menuet VII. Gigue
4’08 3’49 1’43 3’19 0’45 1’14 1’27
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Suite No.5 in F I. Ouverture II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Gavotte VI. Menuet en rondeau VII. Gigue
4’00 4’08 1’36 2’54 1’19 1’33 1’22
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Suite No.3 in B minor I. Ouverture II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Gavotte VI. Menuet VII. Gigue
5’04 3’45 1’38 2’58 1’15 1’40 2’13
Fernando Miguel Jalôto harpsichord
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Charles Dieupart: Six Suites de clavecin The composer Very little is known about the life of the French composer, harpsichordist and violinist Charles [François] Dieupart. He was born in Paris, and by the turn of the century had become the harpsichord teacher to a British noblewoman living in France: Elizabeth Wilmot (1674–1757), daughter of the Earl of Rochester and, after her wedding in 1689, Countess of Sandwich. This connection must have prompted Dieupart to look for work in England, because in 1703 we find him performing Corelli sonatas at a concert in London’s Drury Lane Theatre. During the following years, for the same theatre, he composed instrumental music for masques and pastiche operas by PierreAntoine Motteux and Nicola Francesco Haym and played continuo in Italian operas such as Bononcini’s Il trionfo di Camilla. This connection with Motteux prospered, and the two set up a rival opera season at the Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket from 1707 to 1710, where Dieupart continued to write more music for Motteux’s plays and also performed in operas by Alessandro Scarlatti. After leaving the Haymarket, Dieupart worked for two years on yet another project to establish a season of ‘musical entertainments’, this time at York Buildings, before he decided to devote himself entirely to teaching. John Hawkins wrote that Dieupart, ‘teaching the harpsichord, and in the capacity of a master of that instrument, had admission into some of the best families in the kingdom’. Nevertheless, Dieupart continued to compose and perform instrumental music – mainly concertos and sonatas – at the Drury Lane Theatre until about 1726. His last known public appearance was in 1724, playing the violin at a concert that included ‘several pieces of his own composing, for the Violin and Harpsichord’, but by then he had become especially famous for his performances of Corelli’s music. According to Hawkins, he died ‘far advanced in years, and in very necessitated circumstances about the year 1740’ after years of dissipation. 4
The music Besides some orchestral music preserved in Dresden, six recorder sonatas published in London in 1717 and a few keyboard pieces recently discovered in London and Vienna, Dieupart’s main musical output and his masterpiece are his Six Suittes de clavessin, published in 1701 by Estienne Roger in Amsterdam. These existed both in a solo harpsichord version and mises en concert for solo recorder and/or violin, with archlute and viol continuo. The edition is dedicated to his former pupil, the Countess of Sandwich, and was never reprinted; however, a selection of 13 movements appeared later in London as Selected Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnett, published by Walsh in 1705. These works are best known today because of the copies made by Johann Sebastian Bach, and they also supposedly influenced the German composer in his English Suites of 1715–20. However, Dieupart’s influence on Bach’s other works is much more pervasive, and extends to the contemporaneous Six Cello Suites and the magnificent French Overture of about 1733–5. In fact, Dieupart’s work establishes a strong link between the French 17th-century harpsichord school and the early-18thcentury German keyboard style; the copies of his pieces that survive in Germany and Austria demonstrate their wide circulation. Although their musical style and vocabulary is mainly French, the works not only show some Italian influences but are also in many respects closer to German works of the time. Each suite has the same standard order of movements, with one exception, Suite No.2, where the Menuet is replaced by a very similar Passepied. This practice is without precedent amongst 17th-century French composers. Dieupart also chooses remote keys such as A major, B minor and F minor, which were uncommon in French music at that time, with some exceptions in the works of Couperin and Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy. The Ouvertures of each suite are among the first of many attempts to translate orchestral forms to a keyboard instrument, but they also reflect the variety and richness of their operatic models. Even in the rare vivacious movements, such as the Gigues and the reprises of the Ouvertures, Dieupart’s suites are always tender and 5
delicate in expression, with eloquent cantabile melodies, sophisticated ornamentation and a very sure command of harmony. The six suites are all outstanding in quality and the equal of the best contemporaneous works in similar styles, illustrating perfectly the transition between two worlds and two centuries. They certainly deserve to be better known and more frequently performed. The interpretation Now that recording a CD is no longer the privilege of ‘a happy few’ but something accessible to every young artist, it becomes harder to choose what to include in a first album, especially if one wants to avoid the two extremes of repeating ‘Greatest Baroque Hits’ and resorting to ‘a totally unknown composer whose works are now being rediscovered’. After long consideration, the Dieupart Suites appeared an ideal choice. They are often recorded in their version for recorder and continuo, but there are not many solo harpsichord versions available, so there is room for another perspective on these pieces. These suites have been faithful companions since my first years of studying the harpsichord, and throughout my career as a performer and harpsichord teacher. They are suitable for both the beginner and the most experienced player, and one can always ‘bring forth out of his treasure things new and old’. If, years ago, a CD recording was something of a definitive statement, since very few performers had the luxury of recording the same work more than once, a recording is now simply a chosen moment in a ‘work in progress’, a landmark in a lifeline that cannot be erased but certainly can be improved and replaced by a fresh view. With this in mind, and without any claim to present the ‘ultimate’ version of Dieupart’s Suites, I have dared to experiment freely with the written material before me, with alternative ornamentation, optional repeats and harmonic filling, often writing out decorative doubles and slightly modifying inner parts. I always kept in my mind the wise advice of Monsieur de Saint-Lambert in his treatise Les Principes du clavecin contenant une explication exacte de tout ce qui concerne la tablature 6
& le clavier, published in 1702, almost the same year as Dieupart’s Suites. He recommended that freedom of tempo and expression should both be used wisely to serve the rhetorical purpose and the communication of feelings and thoughts: ‘[...] une Piéce de Musique ressemble à peu prés à une Piéce d’Eloquence, ou plûtôt c’est la Pièce d’Eloquence qui ressemble à la Piéce de Musique [...]’ (‘A piece of music more or less resembles a piece of eloquence [an oration], or rather, it is the piece of eloquence that resembles the piece of music’); even more importantly, ‘[...] tout Homme du Métier qui joüe la Piéce qu’un autre a composé, ne s’attache pas tant à donner à cette Piéce le mouvement que l’Auteur a voulu marquer para le Signe qu’il a mis au commencement, qu’à luy en donner un qui satisfasse son goût [...]’ (‘Every trained musician who plays a piece composed by another does not attempt so much to give the piece the tempo that the composer tried to indicate by the time signature stated at the beginning, as to give it one which satisfies his own taste’); and finally, ‘[...] Le Lecteur qui étudie icy les principes du Clavecin [...] peut user du privilege des Musiciens, & donner aux Piéces tel mouvement qu’il luy plaira [...]’ (‘The reader who studies the principles of harpsichord playing [...] may use the privilege bestowed on musicians, and accord to each of the pieces whatever tempo pleases him’). With these considerations in mind, I have tried to share with the listener my passion for this particular repertoire. If, while listening to this music, you feel even just a tiny fraction of the pleasure and joy that I experienced while performing it, my goal will have been fully achieved. 훿 Fernando Miguel Jalôto, May 2014
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Fernando Miguel Jalôto Miguel studied the harpsichord at the Conservatório de Música do Porto in Portugal with Maria de Lourdes Alves, and at the Early Music and Historical Performance Practice Department of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Netherlands), where he completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees in harpsichord with Jacques Ogg. He attended masterclasses with Gustav Leonhardt, Olivier Baumont, Laurence Cummings, Ketil Haugsand and Ilton Wjuniski, and also studied the clavichord and Baroque organ. He has a further Masters degree in Music from the University of Aveiro in Portugal, and is currently studying for his PhD in Historical Musicology with a grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology at the New University of Lisbon. He is a former member of the Académie baroque européenne d’Ambronay and the Belgian academy MUSICA. Miguel is principal guest continuo player with the Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música (Porto) under the direction of Laurence Cummings, and principal guest harpsichord, fortepiano and organ player with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, under the direction of Paul McCreesh. He was the regular harpsichordist of the Baroque orchestra Divino Sospiro for seven years under the direction of Enrico Onofri, 8
frequently performing as a soloist at important venues in Portugal, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland and Japan. He collaborates with such prestigious groups as La Galanía (Raquel Andueza), Capilla Flamenca (Dirk Snellings), Oltremontano (Wim Becu), La Colombina (Josep Cabré), and the Portuguese Ensemble Bonne Corde (Diana Vinagre). He has recorded for the labels Ramée/Outhere Music, Glossa Music, Anima e Corpo, Dynamic and Naxos. With the Baroque flautist Joana Amorim, Miguel has created his own early music group, the Ludovice Ensemble, devoted to the performance of instrumental and vocal chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries, with particular emphasis on Portuguese, French and Italian repertoires. The Ludovice Ensemble is prominent on the Portuguese early music scene and often performs abroad at important venues like Utrecht’s OudeMuziek Festival, AMUZ Antwerp Festival, Festival de La Chaise-Dieu in France, and the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague. The ensemble is also a regular guest at Spanish festivals, including San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Lugo, Jaca, VitoriaGasteiz, Peñiscola and Daroca. Miguel has performed under the direction of Chiara Banchini, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Christina Pluhar, Harry Christophers, Antonio Florio, Andrew Parrott, Fabio Biondi, Christophe Rousset, Ton Koopman, Paul Hillier, Marco Mencoboni and Leonardo García Alarcón, and shared the platform with soloists such as María Cristina Kiehr, Marc Hantaï, Alfredo Bernardini, Vittorio Ghielmi, Riccardo Minasi, Roberta Invernizzi, Marcello Gatti and Christophe Coin.
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Also available on Brilliant Classics
To Rainer Arndt, for all his enthusiasm, knowledge and work; to Ton Amir, for his encouragement and expertise; to my teachers, for everything they taught me; to my family and friends, for their support and energy; to Pieter van Winkel, for believing in this project: Muito, muito obrigado! Duphly: Complete Pièces de clavecin 94999 4CD
Royer: Complete Music for Harpsichord 94479
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Rameau: Complete Works for Harpsichord 93903 3CD
Le Rois de Versailles: Lute music by Pinel and De Visée 95071
Recording: 22–24 April 2012, Church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, Basse-Bodeux, Belgium Artistic direction, recording, editing & mastering: Rainer Arndt Instrument: double-manual harpsichord by Klinkhamer & Partners, Amsterdam, 1994, after Claude Labrèche (Carpentras, c.1690) Tuning: A=408 Hz; temperament based on Rameau (1726) by Anton Amir Liner note editing & revision: Philip Yeeles, John Hodgson, Ivan Moody & Anthony Hart Sources: Dieupart, C., 6 Suiten für Cembalo (Faksimile des Erstdrucks), Mieroprint, 1999, Münster, Germany; Dieupart, C., Six Suites pour Clavecin: publiées par Paul Brunold; révision par Kenneth Gilbert, Éditions de L’Oiseau-Lyre, 1979/1990, Les Remparts, Monaco; facsimile of the original recorder and basso continuo parts, included in the previous edition; Dieupart, C., Three Suites for Harpsichord, ed. Andrew Woolley, Edition HH, 2009, Launton Nr. Bicester, Oxfordshire, UK Artist photo 훿 Michal Novak Cover image: Les Plaisirs du Bal by Antoine Watteau (1715–7), Dulwich Picture Gallery, London & 훿 2015 Brilliant Classics
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