Elsie Suddaby (soprano)
Max Rostal (violin)
Nationality in music is an elusive quality, going far deeper than interest in folk music (which seems to be looked upon by some people as the only hall-mark of ' nationalism '). It is almost impossible to say just what it is that is so essentially French in the charming, delicate art of Francois Couperin. We only know that we recognise it again in the music of Debussy and Ravel two centuries later-and nowhere else.
The ' Concerts royaux ', published in 1722, mark Couperin's highest achievement in the field of instrumental ensemble music. In them, as Georges Migot says, he ' attained to the complete expression of his genius. He knew that music must consist of sonorities made to be heard and not read ... his material is beautiful, pliant, full, and iridescent.
It has been said that Porpora was the greatest singing master that ever lived. A contemporary of Handel's, he spent two or three years of his erratic career in London, directing an operatic enterprise in opposition to Handel's, in which he had the backing of a good part of influential London. None of his own operas, however, has survived, although he is supposed to have composed no fewer than thirty-three, as well as numerous oratorios, masses, and smaller vocal and instrumental pieces. It is in some of these last that his best qualities are displayed, and this melodious sonata is a good example of his style.