Angela Hewitt’s Hyperion discs of Couperin and Rameau were my introduction to French baroque keyboard music, sending me down a rabbit hole which I’m still exploring (do investigate Marcelle Meyer’s vintage Rameau compilation on Erato – it’s fabulous). This beautifully recorded new Hyperion disc from pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen is another winner and includes a rarely heard Suite No. 2 by Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729), a pioneering female composer who made her Versailles debut in front of Louis XIV at the age of five. The Suite comes from the first set of Pièces de clavecin, published in 1687 and opens with a magnificent unmeasured prelude. I’d urge anyone to download the score on IMSLP and marvel at Momen’s magical ability to bring what looks like a page of skeletal doodles into rich, humane life. Tempi are well-chosen and ornaments are dispatched with rare fluency, numbers like the tiny “Menuet & double” both charming and profound.
You’d buy this disc for the de la Guerre alone, though Momen is equally persuasive elsewhere. An opening sequence of François Couperin miniatures is fabulous, “Le Tic-Toc-Choc” as perky as “Les ombres errantes” is subdued, and it’s followed by Rameau’s Suite in E minor. “Le rappel des oiseaux” sparkles, and “La villageoise” sounds terrific on Momen’s Yamaha grand, the bass notes deep and clear. We get more Couperin to close the album: “Le carillon de Cithère” is exquisite, and the dotted rhythms of the final “Forlane” have the requisite bounce. A lovely disc, and a perfect taster menu for anyone new to this repertoire.