Les Nations [CD de audio] Musica Ad Rhenum, Fran輟is Couperin and Jed Wentz

Couperin may have been a contemporary of JS Bach, but his life stands in stark contrast to that of the great German. A court composer who worked in the fashion capital of the 18th century, Versailles, he was known as an innovator, the author of an elegant and refined style where virtuosity and good taste worked in happy coexistence. This is no better illustrated than in his Les Nations, four trio pieces consisting of a sonata followed by a suite. While three of the Italian sonatas were composed long before their date of publication (1726), Couperin rejects their cultivation of the Goûts-réünis, a fusion of the two most important styles of that period, French and Italian, for dances. Here, however, he opts for a clearly French idiomatic style, where expression and form are one. Performing Les Nations is the acclaimed early music group Music Ad Rhenum, an ensemble that seeks to move, entertain and delight viewers through the blending of an informed historical perspective with a living artistic spirit. Using contemporary instrumentation, as well as metronome cues and marked freedom of tempo, typical characteristics of the French style at the time, Jed Wentz leads some highly charged performances.