Couperin - L’Apothéose; Leçons

The Guardian 80

Watson/Dennis/Arcangelo/Cohen
(Hyperion)

Composers don’t do tributes like they used to. Couperin’s fanciful 1725 entertainment dedicated “to the immortal memory of the incomparable” Lully has the late French master summoned by Apollo from the Elysian Fields to Parnassus to play violin duets with the spirit of Corelli. Couperin was preoccupied with combining French and Italian musical styles, and as soon as Corelli comes into view the musicians start playing with equal quavers rather than the lopsided inégal ones favoured by the French – almost a shame, given that those pesky French quavers are played with such a delightfully relaxed shrug by harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen and his four Arcangelo musicians. But you need know nothing of that to enjoy the grace and immediacy of the playing, or the charm of the music. Couperin’s three Tenebrae lessons, written for opera singers rather than clerics, are almost as beguiling, and beautifully sung here by sopranos Katherine Watson and Anna Dennis.