Torelli, Francesca
Les Sentiments: French Baroque Masterworks
This recording showcases a selection of exemplary pieces from the French Baroque solo instrument repertoire, which I chose among a wide variety of lute music and also by transcribing from the harpsichord. The harpsichord has an important Baroque repertoire that culminates with Francois Couperin and Rameau. But, as is well known, it does not allow giving shade to the sounds, or dosing them, basically it cannot play softly, or loudly. One of the most important musical theorists of the seventeenth century, Mersenne, writes in his treatise Harmonie Universelle: "The resonant sound of the spinet [little harpsichord], it is the most excellent imaginable, but the player has no control over this sound, which is quite open and cannot be varied and enriched by ornaments, as can that of the lute". So, the reason for transcribing music for harpsichord is a search for greater expressiveness through shaping the sound. "Les Sentiments" is the title of one of the pieces by Francois Couperin present in the program, and I thought of it as the emblem of the entire CD. In fact, this repertoire displays the wide palette of the motions of the soul", as they were called in Italy during the Renaissance - later referred to as "affects" in the seventeenth century. Couperin seems to have been among the first musicians to define them as "sentiments". It is no coincidence that in his first book for harpsichord he declared: "I confess that I am more attracted by what moves me, rather than by what amazes me".