Having participated in the unprecedented first complete recording of François Couperin’s chamber music nearly 30 years ago for SEON (now Sony), brothers Barthold and Wieland Kuijken and harpsichordist Robert Kohnen return offering their latest–and often very different–thoughts on four favorites for Accent. In comparison to their earlier effort, we notice the leaner instrumentation (gone are the oboe, bassoon, and additional second bass viol continuo) and the trio’s more assured way with the music. For example, unlike most performers who tend to adopt slower tempos when they return to works that helped establish their reputations, the Kuijkens and Kohnen are consistently quicker and simply more expressive throughout (those occasional awkward faux-elegant reverential pauses that littered their first efforts are nowhere to be heard here). The fourth-movement Gavotte and fifth-movement Gigue of the Premier Concert now effortlessly flow with greater exuberance and panache. And unlike his previous, somewhat hesitant treatment of the second-movement Allemande-Fuguee of the Second Concert, flutist Barthold Kuijken cuts a far more dashing lead here.
Also included are equally vital performances of Ritratto dell’ amore and Septième Concert from Les Goûts réunis. While certainly accomplished, they face significant competition, particularly from Claudio Rufa, Paolo Pandolfo, and Rinaldo Allessandrini, whose performance of Ritratto dell’ amore on Tactus remains the one of choice for a trio setting of the work. Though adopting similar tempos, the Tactus trio’s performance also features crisper, more animated articulation (compare their more striking treatment of the fourth-movement Le je ne say quoy) and occasionally more convincing programmatic allure (the delightfully aloof, marginally more exalted rendering of the sixth-movement La Noble Fierte-Sarabande).
Accent’s sound is lovely–richly detailed with excellent clarity and presence. Pieter Andriessen’s informative yet at times flamboyant notes are great fun. After all this time these guys not only still have what it takes, but they’re performing better than ever.
