This is Louis Couperin (1626-1661), the earliest of the historically significant members of a French music dynasty that stretched from the middle of the 17th century to the end of the 18th. Most of ...

Francois Couperin, or "Couperin le Grand." Francois Couperin, also known as "Couperin le Grand." One key French composer will be well represented on the program even though he didn’t directly write ...

Thomas Adès, the British composer, seems to have reached the stage where, whatever he writes, someone will program it. That’s stardom. Last Thursday, the New York Philharmonic opened a concert with ...

This kaleidescopic musical trompe l’oeil will invade your consciousness for weeks Here’s a challenge for a thawing Thursday: see if you can listen to this piece and not have it invade your entire ...

The delightful scenario of L’Apothéose de Lully imagines the composer Lully, one of François Couperin’s forebears at the court of Louis XIV, being wafted up to Mount Parnassus by Apollo. There, he ...

Ambronay festival favourites Les Ombres are described as being part of the new young generation, who apparently ‘cross borders to share a vision of human resolve beyond national divide’ and create ‘a ...

Extravagant devotion played a prominent part in politics in the France of Louis XIV, preserved in grands motets and flamboyant Te Deum and Mass settings. This disc turns to the realm of private ...

The best recordings serve to illuminate a composer’s music, shining a light in dark corners to reveal previously hidden details. Others redraw its horizon completely. Jean Rondeau’s monumental ‘Louis ...

Lucie Skeaping talks to harpsichordist Carole Cerasi about the keyboard music of Francois Couperin, in the light of her recent release of the complete works for harpsichord.

Maurice Ravel was a truck driver in the military transport service during World War I. He was surrounded by the horrors of war and yet paradoxically the music he wrote in response to that war contains ...

Lucie Skeaping marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of François Couperin with a programme devoted to the four suites of chamber music he wrote for Louis XIV in 1715 - Les Concerts Royaux.