Mark Kroll - Couperin: The Complete Pièces de clavecin, Vol. 3 (2017)

Continuing his series of the complete harpsichord works of François Couperin on Centaur, Mark Kroll performs three ordres or suites from the four books of Pièces de Clavecin, leading the listener deeper into the byways of Couperin's keyboard output. While some of the best-known character pieces were included in the two previous volumes, such as Les Barricades Mistérieuses, Le Tic-Toc-Choc, and L'Arlequine, this third volume presents the Third, Eleventh, and Thirteenth ordres, which don't include any obvious greatest hits, though there are entertaining highlights for fans of the composer. Sample Les Fastes de la grande, et Anciénne Mxnxstrxndxsx (or the Ménéstrandise, a guild for dancers and musicians that existed from the 14th to the 18th centuries), a farce in three acts depicting fiddlers, jugglers, acrobats, drunkards, and monkeys. Also try Les Folies françoises, ou Les Dominos, which depicts a slightly surreal assembly of masked dancers at a ball. Kroll's performances are playful, energetic, and lively, and his use of two instruments -- a Pascal Taskin harpsichord of 1769 and a replica by William Dowd from 1974 -- provides a great variety of timbres. Centaur's recorded sound is clean and close to the harpsichord, so every ornate detail can be heard.