Pierre-Claude Foucquet (1694-1772)
Pièces de Clavecin
Les Caractères de la Paix, op. 1
Pièces de Clavecin, Book II
Les Forgerons, Le Concert des Faunes et autre pièces de clavecin, III Livre
Fernando De Luca (harpsichord)
rec. 2021, Borgo Ticino, Novara, Italy
Reviewed as a stereo 16/44 download from Outhere
Brilliant Classics 96772 [158]
The Italian harpsichordist Fernando De Luca likes to leave the trodden paths. In the course of his career, he has frequently explored unknown harpsichord repertoire from the 18th century. In recent years, he has been making recordings for the Brilliant Classics label, which in 2022 released his complete recording of the harpsichord oeuvre of Charles Moyreau; the latest recording is again devoted to an unknown French master: Pierre-Claude Foucquet, whose complete output for harpsichord is recorded here on two discs. Foucquet is not a completely unknown quantity; he has an entry in New Grove, but as far as I know, none of his harpsichord pieces has ever been recorded before.
In New Grove, we learn that he was born into a musical family – of organists, whose members occupied the post of organist at St Eustache in Paris from 1681 to 1783. The earliest-known member of the family was Gilles (?-1646), who was organist at two churches. Pierre-Claude was the son of Pierre, who became organist at St Honoré as successor to Louis Marchand. In 1708 he resigned as organist at St Eustache, where he was succeeded by Charles Piroye. When the latter was dismissed in 1712, Pierre-Claude succeeded him, with his father Pierre as his deputy. Before 1740 he succeeded his uncle Antoine as organist of the Abbey of St Victor. In 1758 he was appointed organist of the royal chapel, as successor to François Dagincourt, and in 1761 he became organist for the fourth quarter of the year at Notre Dame, where his colleagues were Louis-Claude Daquin, Claude-Bénigne Balbastre and Armand-Louis Couperin. These are all still known as organists and composers of keyboard music, whereas Foucquet has remained largely unknown. That may well be due to the fact that he has left no organ music. New Grove mentions that he seems to have led a quiet life, and that little is known about his biography. He also never appeared in public concerts – for instance, at the Concert Spirituel. Even so, the inventory after his death indicates that he lived in some comfort, as the all posts he occupied were prestigious.
Foucquet seems to have written just one piece of vocal music, an air de cour, published in a collection of airs sérieux et à boire in 1719. Apart from a single minuet which was included in a German collection published in Berlin in 1763, his complete output was published in three books between 1749 and 1754. The first book includes a preface, a method of learning the keyboard in one lesson, tables of ornaments and scale fingerings. What is notable in all three books is the fact that nearly every piece is either a character piece or a piece of a descriptive nature, and that Foucquet frequently uses the form of the rondeau, which was very popular in France in his time. In the first book, four out of six pieces are rondeaus, in book II nine out of thirteen and in book III, nine out of sixteen.
Many titles are impossible to interpret, and De Luca, in his liner-notes, does not attempt to explain them. In some cases they refer to either real or imaginary persons, such as La Nanette, La Miranda and L’Aimable Thérèse, all from book III. The first book is a suite of connected pieces with the collective title Les Caractères de la Paix. It is a kind of battle scene, which opens with a march, followed by a fanfare, including a depiction of the roaring of cannons. The latter piece reminds me of Balbastre’s Marche des Marseillois et l’air Ça-ira. It is followed by Le feu, a very noisy piece. Then we get Les Grâces, which can either refer to the three Graces from antique mythology or to prayers of thanksgiving. It is impossible to say which one is meant here. The closing sections are Les Ris and Les Jeux, which may refer to the celebrations after the victory.
The second book opens with another march, called Marche des Pèlerins de Cythère. This may well refer to a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, Le Pèlerinage à l’île de Cythère. “The painting portrays a “fête galante”; an amorous celebration or party enjoyed by the aristocracy of France after the death of Louis XIV, which is generally seen as a period of dissipation and pleasure, and peace, after the sombre last years of the previous reign.” (Wikipedia) This is confirmed by the next piece, Le Passe Tems (pastime), which is called a pantomyme. The fourth piece is Le Carillon de Cythère, and then one knows what to expect. To what extent the remaining pieces are connected to these is impossible to say. Titles like La Brillante, La Laborieuse or La Cémonville are impossible to interpret.
Like the first book, the third has a title: Les Forgerons, Le Concert des Faunes et autres pièces de Clavecin. Les Forgerons is the title of the first section: forgeron means ‘blacksmith’, but what exactly Foucquet wanted to illustrate is impossible to say. The concert of fauns or satyrs is the subject of the second piece, which is full of dissonances. Les Coqs gris et noirs is obvious and so is La Capricieuse. In the course of the 18th century life at the countryside was idealized, certainly in France, and the musette was associated with it. This is illustrated in Tambourin ou Musette Provençale, in which the left hand plays a drone from start to finish. The book ends with three minuets, the only non-descriptive pieces in all three books.
A sceptical reader might think that music that seemingly has never attracted the attention of today’s performers must be of mediocre quality – but that would be a mistake. History is not always fair, and too many performers confine themselves to the standard repertoire. Fortunately, there are artists who look beyond the obvious; Fernando De Luca is one of them and we should be thankful for him and performers like him. Obviously, the appreciation of music is also a matter of taste. I certainly was not enthusiastic about every piece by the above-mentioned Moyreau. No comparison is fair, but overall I tend to think that Foucquet’s music is better than Moyreau’s, even though there are some trivial pieces. The ‘battle pieces’ from the first book are nice to hear once, but I doubt whether I want to hear them again. However, the large majority of the pieces in these three books are really good stuff. Whether they make a positive impression also depends on the performer; music by an unknown composer probably needs a really good interpreter more than works by an established master – and De Luca is a good interpreter; I very much enjoyed his performances, which keep the listener’s attention, even in pieces that are in danger of becoming repetitive, especially because of the rondeau texture, which means that a motif returns a number of times. De Luca’s performance is as differentiated as possible, also in his treatment of the tempi. He has the advantage of a fine instrument, a copy of a Blanchet of 1754. That is as ‘authentic’ as one could wish for.
This is a production that each harpsichord lover should investigate. And I advise to have a look at De Luca’s collection of recordings on Sala del Cembalo as well.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
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