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Forqueray - Pieces de Viole mises en Pieces de Clavecin - K Haugsand CD2 (no booklet, nmr)

This double-disc set might seem to be an item for Baroque specialists only, but general listeners should sample it as well; it's quite lovely, and its history has a labor-of-love aspect that comes through in the playing by Norwegian harpsichordist Ketil Haugsand, a specialist in the music of Jean-Baptiste Forqueray. He built the harpsichord himself and finally managed to record these pieces after several false starts. Jean-Baptiste was the son of viol virtuoso and composer Antoine Forqueray. Their relationship might be described as dysfunctional: the father, who according to Haugsand was jealous of his son's musical talents, had him imprisoned on trumped-up charges of consorting with "lowlife women." Nevertheless, after Antoine's death, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray presented these harpsichord arrangements of his father's viol pieces. He retitled and altered them a bit in the process, and there's a bit of a question as to how many of his own contributions there are in the music. Be that as it may, these are unique in the vast realm of French keyboard suites. They are kept low in the harpsichord's range, in order, according to Forqueray, to emulate the register of the viola da gamba, and they are melodic and imbued with a free and somehow meditative quality. They sound very little like the suites of either Couperin or Rameau, with ornamentation subtly rather than brilliantly applied. Superior studio recording by German Radio in Cologne for the Norwegian label Simax Classics is another attraction in this offbeat Baroque pick.