These duets for harpsichords by François Couperin are significant because they emerged during the period in which French composers were trying to counter the style and influence of Corelli, as shown by many of Lully’s keyboard works. Couperin didn’t subscribe to the movement, recognizing that both schools were of equal value. Rather, he published a set of pieces in 1724 as The Apotheosis of Corelli, following it a year later with The Apotheosis of Lully, a counterbalance extolling the glories of French music. Both groups are played here by William Christie and Christophe Rousset, along with a number of smaller free-standing works. The two Apotheoses are littered with Classical allusion far too detailed to explain here; they’re best heard in their complete context, joined by the helpful references to the composer’s fanciful programs reproduced in the booklet notes.
Christie and Rousset, both acknowledged authorities in music of this period and genre, give crisply alert, expert accounts. The recording, made at the Salle Adyar, Paris, in August 1987, isn’t quite as detailed and pin-sharp in its focus as many harpsichord discs. It does, however, place the two instruments antiphonally, so the sense of dialogue and sometimes open combat between them is strongly conveyed.
