Editorial Reviews

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795) came from Germany but lived for part of his life in Paris; his name is usually spelled Marpurg, but the French spelling employed on this French Canadian disc was one he sometimes used himself. Marpurg, however spelled, was better known as a theorist, journalist, historian, and writer of instructional volumes than as a composer, and, like many a musician after him, he eventually gave up music for a more lucrative line of work -- becoming, charmingly enough, the director of the Prussian national lottery. His keyboard works are not often recorded. Those who suspect this circumstance reflects the old adage that "those who can't do, teach" will be partially disabused -- the harpsichord music heard here is generally pleasant, with a grasp of the ingratiating quality that increasingly marked French music as the eighteenth century progressed. Sample track 8, "La plaintive Philis," which brings an unusual pastoral mood into the keyboard orbit. Marpurg's little suites are pale things compared with those of Rameau, however. The two Allegros that close the program, excerpted from a book called Les principes du clavecin, are held up by harpsichordist Yves-G. Préfontaine in his own notes as works that "definitely belong to another era, the dawn of the style galant." They are indeed more modern in style, but they rather awkwardly combine heavy ornamentation with the brisk forward motion of the Italian styles that were sweeping across France. Préfontaine delivers enthusiastic readings of music he has himself uncovered, and libraries may want to have this disc on hand for students of the eighteenth century who will often come across the name of Marpurg and may want to know what his music sounded like. James Manheim, All Music Guide

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