About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

Gustav Leonhardt proves that he still can perform with erudition and freshness with these pieces by Frescobaldi and Louis Couperin. The sophistication of the music is all there, and so is the sense of improvisation. In the Frescobaldi, Leonhardt shapes phrases and sections of music to sound as if they were spontaneous dialogues and conversations between refined intellectuals. Even so, and at a moderate pacing, they are actively involved and not dryly academic. The refinement is also a strong feature of Couperin's highly stylized dances. Also at a moderate pacing that rarely varies, even between movements of the suites, his music comes across as being used for dances at the highest levels of society. It is as if only the finest people, dressed in the finest silks and satins, would dance to Couperin's music, and yet Leonhardt still infuses it with some warmth so that it is not at all staid. The only unfortunate aspect of this album is that sameness of tempo throughout the program. Without the contrast of more widely varying tempos between pieces, particularly in the Couperin suites where every piece is also in the same key, the listener can easily lose focus and thereby miss out on the details of the music and the performance, both of which deserve attention. Patsy Morita, All Music Guide

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