Time 19:00
The Palace on the Isle in the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw
BUY TICKET
It is hard to imagine French music of the second half of the 17th century and the early decades of the 18th century without the harpsichord. This remarkable instrument – a symbol of elegance and refinement – enjoyed particular esteem at the royal court and among the aristocracy. Composers competed in elaborate ornamentation, technical innovations, and sophisticated melodic and harmonic solutions. The suites of Louis Couperin, the prematurely deceased patriarch of a powerful dynasty of musicians, captivate with their harmonic richness and polyphonic inventiveness. The dance-like nature of the genre was especially well understood by Jacques Champion de Chambonnières – a composer and performer, but also a talented dancer who even shared the stage with Louis XIV himself. The program will also feature a work by the most famous female composer of the Ancien Régime, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. While amateur instrument playing was a standard part of women’s education, the pursuit of an independent musical career remained a rare exception.
The second part of the concert will open with three illustrative miniatures by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The term L’Agaçante refers to an annoying person or thing, while La Livri serves as an elegy for the death of a generous patron of the arts. La Dauphine, one of Rameau’s last harpsichord pieces, was likely composed to celebrate the wedding of Dauphin Louis Ferdinand (son of King Louis XV) to Maria Josepha of Saxony in 1747. The program will also include works by François Couperin, who during his lifetime earned the epithet “Le Grand.” Each of the miniatures in his Dix-neuvième Ordre bears a title, as the composer himself emphasized that he always had “an object in view, furnished by various occasions” while writing them. The concert will conclude with the G major Suite, originally composed by Antoine Forqueray for viola da gamba and, after his death, transcribed for harpsichord by his son, Jean-Baptiste. The titles of its individual movements pay homage to renowned Parisian musicians such as Jean Dubreuil, Jean-Marie Leclair, and René du Buisson.
“Just as there is a great difference between grammar and recitation, so too is there an immense gap between musical notation and a good performance,” claimed François Couperin. The secrets of the French style will be unveiled to the audience by one of the most talented young harpsichordists of his generation – the multi-award-winning Maciej Skrzeczkowski.
Marta Dziewanowska-Pachowska
PROGRAM
Louis Couperin (1626–1661) – Suite in D minor
Prélude (1)
Courante I (43) & II (42)
Sarabande (51)
Volte (53)
La Pastourelle (54)
Canaries (52)
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (1601-1672) – Suite in F major
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Chaconne
Brusque
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729) – Suite in A minor
Prélude
Allemande
Courante I & II
Sarabande
Gigue
Chaconne
Gavotte
Menuet
— intermission —
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
L’Agaçante
La Livri
La Dauphine
François Couperin (1668-1733) – Dix-neuvième Ordre (XIX) D major /d minor
Les Calotins et les Calotines, ou La pièce à Tretous
Les Calotines
L’Ingénuë
L’Artiste
Les Culbutes Ixcxbxnxs
La Muse-Plantine
L’Enjouée
Jean-Baptiste Forqueray (1699-1782) – Suita in G major
La Bouron
La Mandoline
La du Breüil. Louré
La Leclair
La Buisson. Chaconne
PERFORMER
MACIEJ SKRZECZKOWSKI HARPSICHORD
Duration: approx. 2 h (with an intermission)
The seats in the auditorium are not numbered.
PATRON OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA
