Frank Theuns, Sophie Gent, Bertrand Cuiller, Les Muffatti – Bach Triple (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:05:35 minutes | 2,53 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramée
Three instruments, three emblematic works, and three excellent soloists! With Sophie Gent on violin, Frank Theuns on traverso and Bertrand Cuiller on harpsichord, Les Muffatti offer a fresh interpretation of Bach’s Triple Concerto, the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Orchestral Suite in B minor. They provide a variety of orchestral textures, appropriate to the more soloistic style in the Brandenburg Concerto, and the alternating ripieno-tutti settings in the Triple Concerto and the Suite.
While the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto was composed during Bach’s time in Köthen and can be regarded as the first piano concerto ever written, the other two works date from his later years in Leipzig. In these works, Bach exploits the full range of compositional possibilities he had acquired during his lifetime; the highly individual combination of contrapuntal artistry and heightened expressiveness already points to the works composed in the last years of his life.
Les Muffatti have been one of the leading artists on the Ramée label from its beginnings; this, their tenth album for Ramée, also marks the label’s 20th anniversary.
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Le Caravansérail, Bertrand Cuiller, Rachel Redmond – A Fancy: Fantasy on English Airs & Tunes (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:02 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The theatres of London were vital centres for Restoration music after the return of the Stuart monarchy, following the fall of Cromwell’s puritan dictatorship. Reinvigorated by the arrival of women actors and sumptuous decoration, they attracted a broad audience, which had been starved of entertainment after the years of religious rigour and the virtual ban on public performances. The most sought-after composer of the period was Locke, whose experience in this field went back into the Cromwell years. While Puritans did close theatres, some pieces had been able to overcome the ban, like the masque Cupid and Death set to music by Gibbons, which was played for the Portuguese ambassador in 1657 – then again in 1659, with additional music by Locke. When the theatres re-opened in 1660, there was a demand for music for every play, but more as an ornament than as an integral part of the plot. Each one required a series of airs and instrumental pieces to be played at the start and between each act. Locke wrote more than twenty airs of this type, although they can’t be pinpointed to any specific plays. Most of his stage music, like Curtain Tune and Lilk, survive in various manuscripts from the period, and comprises stage music for plays performed in the final decade of the 17th Century. These are the inter-act pieces, airs or “curtain-raisers” which Bertrand Cuiller’s Caravansérail ensemble plays here – Cuiller, remember, learned the harpsichord with Pierre Hantaï and Christophe Rousset. His last solo album, Rameau’s complete works for harpsichord, was declared Classica’s Shock of the Year 2015. The airs here are sung by Scottish soprano Rachel Redmond, a great performer of baroque music.
Read more![Le Caravansérail, Emmanuelle de Negri, Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian, Bertrand Cuiller - Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater & Other Works (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/05/11/fx45sidtbi3ab_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Le Caravansérail, Emmanuelle de Negri, Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian, Bertrand Cuiller – Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater & Other Works (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:16:20 minutes | 3,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
A model of daring harmonic and contrapuntal treatment, Domenico Scarlatti’s extraordinary Stabat Mater is one of the very few surviving examples of his music for the church. To place this unique masterpiece in context, Bertrand Cuiller and members of Le Caravansérail invite us to sample the composer’s unjustly neglected contribution to the genre of opera and secular cantata, tracing a fascinating itinerary that leads from Naples to Rome and on to Madrid.
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Frank Theuns & Bertrand Cuiller – Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonate e partite per il flauto traversiere (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:59 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramée
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Johann Sebastian Bach never intended to compose flute sonatas or partitas in sets of 6 or 12, as was customary at the time (and as he himself did for violin, cello and harpsichord). Bach’s flute sonatas evolved over a roughly 30-year period between ca. 1717–1747 as he encountered the different types of flute in fashion at the time, and met several greatly skilled flautists. The question of which flautist and flute makers Bach may have known played a decisive role in choosing the programme on this recording. In preparation, Frank Theuns compared and assessed the playing qualities of various early eighteenth-century flute types. Eventually, he decided on a copy of a flute made by Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin. The balanced, brilliant, Italianate sound of this instrument was a perfect match for the demands of this repertoire. As well as being an unequalled flautist and an accomplished composer, Buffardin was also a renowned flute maker whom Bach may have met in Dresden in 1717.
Read more![Bertrand Cuiller - Rameau: Pièces pour clavecin (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/02/3760127222668_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Bertrand Cuiller – Rameau: Pièces pour clavecin (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:31:12 minutes | 2,97 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Mirare
‘Every soul and spirit were in his harpsichord,’ dramatist Alexis Piron wrote about his friend Rameau. Listeners of today are often more inclined to prefer his operas. However, there is a wealth of wit, wisdom and joy in Rameau’s harpsichord works.
This collection of the complete Pièces pour clavecin, performed by Bertrand Cuiller with his customary finesse and passion, illuminates all of the beauty and virtuosity of these works.
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Bertrand Cuiller – Mr Tomkins his Lessons of Worthe (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]
![Bertrand Cuiller - Mr Tomkins his Lessons of Worthe (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/02/3760127221371_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Bertrand Cuiller – Mr Tomkins his Lessons of Worthe (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 58:03 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Mirare
Thomas Tomkins may be the least known of the composers recorded here, but we unique insights to the Worcester composer, as his autograph manuscripts have been preserved in his own hand, in particular Re.1122 in the Bibiothèque National in Paris. This recording takes Tomkins advice to a copyist, or ‘lessons of worthe’, and applies it to a recital programme: “placed in their owne native keyes: not mingling or mangling them together wth others of contrary keys: But put in theyr Right places.” The pieces in G are played on a copy by Malcolm Rose of the harpsichord built by Lodewijk Theeuwes in 1579, now in the V & A; those is D are on a claviorgan. This hybrid instrument combines a harpsichord and an organ, both operated from the harpsichord keyboard. Here an Italian harpsichord by Philippe Humeau is coupled with a positive organ by Etienne Fouss. Lastly, the pieces in A are performed on a magnificent invention by the builder Philippe Humeau, a diminutive Italian harpsichord in sequoia with 8’ and 4’ stops.
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![Bertrand Cuiller - François Couperin L'Alchimiste: Un petit théâtre du monde (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/02/lsxl9ta4grxoc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Bertrand Cuiller – François Couperin L’Alchimiste: Un petit théâtre du monde (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:07:39 minutes | 2,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
A miniature Theatre of the World This box set launches a new complete recording of François Couperin’s works for harpsichord: an extensive selection of vocal pieces and chamber music and the organ masses will be gathered around this rich corpus, each in its own way shedding further light on the keyboard music. In this first volume, Bertrand Cuiller draws the portrait of a mysterious alchemist: the ordres chosen here play with the colour of sounds, alliterations, double meanings and parodies, freely inspired by the world of the theatre. An enigmatic world to which Bertrand Cuiller undoubtedly holds the key . . .
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