This new reissue of the famous recording made in 1985 at Radio France offers us a sumptuous reunion with a cast of performers who have become true "stars" of the Baroque over time. Jordi Savall was to reach the top of the charts and win international recognition six years later with his soundtrack for Alain Corneau's film Tous les matins du monde, based on a story by Pascal Quignard about the violinist and composer Marin Marais and his master Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, played by Gérard Depardieu and Jean-Pierre Marielle respectively.
The other musicians on this recording were also to excel: violinist Monica Huggett has become one of the leading lights of the baroque violin, notably as concertmaster of the Royal Academy of Music and then as a teacher at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. Chiara Banchini had great success playing that same instrument with Ensemble 415, which she founded in 1981 and with which she made numerous recordings for harmonia mundi. Shortly after this performance, harpsichordist Ton Koopman recorded the complete cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach with his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and the American Hopkinson Smith enchanted the world with his lute, vihuela, theorbo and baroque guitar.
François Couperin's two Apotheoses are a splendid tribute to Lully and Corelli, two composers he loved above all else and whom he imagines finding again through death by the grace of music, with a vibrant tribute mixing Italian and French tastes. This landmark recording has lost none of its charm. © François Hudry/Qobuz