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Couperin’s Les Nations
8.573347-48
8.573347-48 • 2 CDs

François COUPERIN (1668–1733)
Les Nations
Sonades et Suites de Simphonies en Trio

Juilliard Baroque

Although Couperin is best known today as a composer of harpsichord music, he remained deeply involved in chamber music throughout his career. Les Nations is a vast project 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. Juilliard Baroque brings together some of the world’s most respected and accomplished early music instrumentalists.

Listen to an extract from
Quatrième Ordre:
La Piémontoise: Allemande

You can listen to Raymond Bisha’s podcast about Couperin’s Les Nations by following either of these links:

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About
Juilliard Baroque
Established in 2009, Juilliard Baroque brings together some of the worldʼs most respected and accomplished period instrument specialists and is the faculty ensemble of Juilliard Historical Performance, the Schoolʼs graduate degree programme in period instrument performance. The members of Juilliard Baroque are virtuoso performers, award-winning recitalists, GRAMMY®-nominated recording artists, soloists, and/or principals with every major international early music ensemble.

Juilliard Baroque performs in a number of guises and has a wide-ranging repertoire, from intimate chamber music concerts with just a handful of performers to larger scale works that require orchestral forces. Juilliard Baroqueʼs début season included performances in New York and Madrid. Of the ensembleʼs performance of the ʻBrandenburgʼ Concertos, The New York Times reported: “Its traversal was an explosion of energy, with consistently brisk tempos (even, comparatively speaking, in the slow movements), sharply articulated rhythms, and textures that combined an appealing period instrument grittiness with the kind of transparency that brings every strand of Bachʼs counterpoint into focus.” The group made its début at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., in 2012 in a concert featuring Bachʼs A Musical Offering and has appeared on tour and in concert in New York on many occasions, including return engagements in the Music Before 1800 series.
From left to right: Cynthia Roberts, Violin (©Christian Steiner) • Gonzalo X. Ruiz, Oboe (©Tatiana Daubek) • Sarah Cunningham, Viola da gamba (©Hanya Chlala)
Daniel Swenberg, Theorbo and Baroque Guitar (©Kobie van Rensburg) • Dominic Teresi, Bassoon (©Jim Kasson) • Kenneth Weiss, Harpsichord (©Arthur Forjonel)
Sandra Miller, Flute (©Rick Davis) • Monica Huggett, Violin (©Hiroshi Iwaya)
Raymon Bisha's
Podcast
You can listen to Raymond Bisha’s podcast about Couperin’s Les Nations
by following either of these links:
The Naxos Blog
The Naxos Blog - iTunes
Free e-mail subscriptions are available on both links