Oiseaux Tristes: Coupe... - Fazil Say - Audio CD (Arrives in 50 days)

“Oiseaux tristes brings together works by three prominent French composers,” writes Fazıl Say. “Ravel’s Miroirs is one of the most interesting works in the piano repertoire and Suite bergamasque is one of Debussy’s most significant piano works ... François Couperin’s Ordre No. 21 in E minor from the fourth book of his Pièces de clavecin was suggested to me by a harpsichordist friend and I decided to adapt it for piano. Couperin believed that music and poetry together had a particular elegance, and the evocative titles of the five pieces reflect his unique style.”

The album takes its name (‘Sad birds’) from the second movement of Miroirs, but the best-known piece on the programme – the rapturous ‘Clair de lune’ – is from Debussy’s Suite bergamasque. Both Ravel and Debussy admired Couperin (1668-1733) as a model of French musical style. During World War I Ravel paid explicit tribute to his predecessor with the suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, while Debussy makes oblique reference to him in the Suite bergamasque: it evokes the early 18th century with a minuet and passepied, while its title and the name ‘Clair de lune’ both recall poems from Paul Verlaine’s 1869 collection Fêtes galantes. Verlaine’s texts reimagine the paintings of Couperin’s contemporary Antoine Watteau, with their courtly ladies and gentlemen, pierrots and harlequins, misty landscapes and subtle emotional ambivalence.

Tracklist

1. Francois Couperin: Quatrieme Livre De Pieces De Clavecin I. La Reine Des Coeurs
2. Ii. La Bondissante
3. Iii. La Couperin
4. Iv. La Harpee
5. V. La Petite-Pince-Sans Rire
6. Claude Debussy: Suite Bergamasque, CD 82 I. Prelude
7. Ii. Menuet
8. Iii. Clair De Lune
9. Iv. Passepied
10. Maurice Ravel: Miroirs, M. 43 I. Noctuelles: Tres Leger
11. Ii. Oiseaux Tristes: Tres Lent
12. Iii. Une Barque Sur L'ocean: D'un Rythme Souple
13. Iv. Alborada Del Gracioso: Assez Vif
14. V. La Vallee Des Cloches: Tres Lent

Label: Plg | Origin: Holland