Couperin: Pieces de violes Paolo Pandolfo

• 1 I. Prelude 04:29
• 2 II. Allemande legere 02:13
• 3 III. Courante 01:54
• 4 IV. Sarabande grave 04:11
• 5 V. Gavotte 01:46
• 6 VI. Gigue 02:10
• 7 VII. Passacaille ou Chaconne 05:42
• 8 I. Pointe-coule 02:35
• 9 II. Badinage 01:43
• 10 III. Lentement, et patetiquement 01:19
• 11 IV. Air - Gracieusement, et legerement 03:23
• 12 I. Prelude 02:20
• 13 II. Fuguete 01:48
• 14 III. Pompe funebre 05:15
• 15 IV. La Chemise blanche 03:08
• 16 I. Vivement 01:56
• 17 II. Air 03:22
• 18 III. Sarabande 03:32
• 19 IV. Chaconne legere 02:48
• 20 III. Plainte pour les Violes, Lentement et douloureusement 04:13
• Total Runtime 59:47

Info for Couperin: Pieces de violes

The confidential, almost secretive, musical world of François Couperin is known through the innumerable emotional connections made in his harpsichord works, but he was also able to produce the same sensations when writing for the viola da gamba. Paolo Pandolfo has brought together on one new album on Glossa these works of Couperin’s full maturity, demonstrating the composer’s spiritual and mischievous tendencies in equal measure (as well as his own mastery of the subtleties of the gamba).

As well as the Plainte from the Tenth Concert Royal, there are two full Concerts from the collection entitled Les Goûts Réunis which ask for two violas da gamba. These are included alongside what may have been Couperin’s final works, the two sets of the Pièces de violes which, being supplied with a figured bass, call upon for the involvement of other instruments such as theorbo and harpsichord.

Considered by the booklet essay writer, Philippe Beaussant, to be ranked as one of Couperin’s masterpieces, the second Suite (which lay undiscovered for almost 250 years) contains an astonishing pair of pieces called Pompe funèbre (Couperin’s musical testament?) and La Chemise blanche.

“Paolo Pandolfo is a wonderfully rhetorical exponent of this beautiful repertoire.” (Classical Music)

“Pandolfo is a master of the style; in slow movements barely a note passes without some subtle bowing nuance or full blown ornament... recorded sound is excellent.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“It’s a stunning recording – music of the highest quality, played with, in turn, lyricism, virtuosity, and a new freedom, yet respect and insight into this most fastidious composer’s clear intentions in all his paraphernalia of bowings, phrasing marks and ornamentation. My record of the year.' (Early Music Review)

Paolo Pandolfo, viola da gamba
Amélie Chemin, viola da gamba
Thomas Boysen, theorbo & Baroque guitar
Markus Hünninger, harpsichord

Recorded in Rasteau, France, in September 2012
Engineered and produced by Christoph Frommen
Executive producer: Carlos Céster

Paolo Pandolfo
Widely admired as a virtuoso exponent of the viola da gamba through his concert performances and recordings of key composers from Germany, France, Spain, England and his native Italy, Paolo Pandolfo has in recent years been developing the instincts and skills for improvising and composing. He began his research in the field of renaissance and baroque musical idioms around 1979 along with violinist Enrico Gatti and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini. Studies with Jordi Savall at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland were followed by membership of Savall’s Hespèrion XX between 1982 and 1990. A highly successful recording of the CPE Bach Sonatas for viola da gamba (on Tactus) in 1990 saw Pandolfo nominated as Professor of viola da gamba at his alma mater, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where he has been concentrating his teaching activities ever since.

Since 1997 all of Paolo Pandolfo’s recordings have appeared on Glossa. The odyssey commenced with the first complete recording of Antoine Forqueray’s Pièces de Viole, followed by discs devoted to the music of Tobias Hume, Marin Marais (Le Labyrinthe et autres histoires was devoted to character music whilst Grand Ballet focused on Marais’ gestures and dance music) and Sainte-Colombe. Pandolfo has regularly ventured beyond the realms of Renaissance and Baroque notated music for his instrument; he achieved a notable success with his own transcription of the six Bach Solo Suites and recorded an unaccompanied recital, A Solo. Travel Notes and Improvisando have further demonstrated Pandolfo’s command of the possibilities of the viola da gamba as a composer himself.

His performing activities have taken him all over the world, playing with artists such as Emma Kirkby, Rolf Lislevand, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Mitzi Meyerson, José Miguel Moreno and many others. He has been described as the Yo Yo Ma of the viol. Since 1992 he has been directing Labyrinto, a group of four or five viola da gambas, which is dedicated to the huge consort music repertoire.

Paolo Pandolfo builds bridges between the past and the present, bringing spontaneous and immediate life in the performance of baroque and renaissance music using medias such as improvisation, transcriptions and composition of modern pieces, being convinced that the patrimony of ancient music can be a powerful inspiration for the future of the western musical tradition.

Booklet for Couperin: Pieces de violes