Rocking The Salon

A disk of harpsichord music entitled A French Collection - Pieces de Clavecin and not a Rameau or Couperin ( Louis or Francois ) in sight. American harpsichordist Skip Sempe has put together an enterprising collection of pieces to show the ecxtent of Parisian salon repertoire in the Age of Enlightenment. There is a Couperin included, Armand-Louis. Other names, little known outside a coterie of cognescenti I would suggest, are Marchand, Duphly, Balbastre, Corrette and Royer. The latter is responsible for the closing tour de force on the disk, La Marche des Scythes. It might be thought that music written for the salon would have a certain restraint and intimacy but there is some thunderous stuff here, often loud and taken at a breakneck speed. Those skeletons on the tin roof were getting extremely frisky ! That is not to say that there isn't also tastefulness and refinement, often within the same piece as the high energy display segments. Sempe pulls off these pieces with some aplomb. I did however find the whole recital a bit of an ordeal to sit through at one sitting, not helped by a rather bright and harsh recorded sound. A fine disk but one perhaps best sampled in smaller doses.