Violaine Cochard DUPHLY

My starting point for this programme was nine of my favourite pieces by Jacques Duphly. Why him? First of all because he writes such lovely tunes, starting with the Allemande which begins his First Book. There are also pieces like Les Grâces, of infinite beauty, the Rondeau in D minor, infused with a gentle melancholy, and La Boucon, with its almost romantic surges of feeling. Alongside that tenderness, Duphly is also capable of unleashing tumultuous power, as in Médée, for example. This selection paints the portrait of a composer who was heir to a French art of harpsichord-playing, the heir of Couperin and Rameau. That is why there are no pieces from the more Italianate Second Book, or from the more gallant Fourth Book, which prefigures the fortepiano.

There are already several complete recordings of Duphly’s works. I wanted to do something different, to record only the pieces which move me, my particular favourites. Although it is possible to listen to the pieces singly, of course, I imagined them as a continuous whole.

I conceived it as a concert programme, an exploration of 18th-century French harpsichord music, a dialogue between Duphly and some of hiscontemporaries who share aspects of his sound-world. I thought it would be interesting to contrast Duphly, who devoted his whole life solely to the harpsichord, with composers who had other interests, such as Royer, who wrote several operas, Forqueray, who also played the viol, and the organists Dandrieu and Balbastre. (Violaine Cochard)