Blandine Verlet - Complete Philips Recordings (14CD)

Harpsichordist, Blandine Verlet would have turned 80 in 2022. Decca France marks her birthday with a new 14-CD set of her complete recordings for Philips, including no less than eight albums released on CD for the first time. The edition offers a fascinating insight into the work of a young musician and her endless aesthetic quest to reinvent the language of the harpsichord, and to have this instrument finally recognised as sweet and sensual.

MORE INFORMATION

In the repertoire recorded on the Philips label between 1970 and 1982 the music of J.S. Bach stands out clearly, accounting for 7 CDs in the edition, including the Toccatas, Partitas, French Suites, Goldberg Variations or the Inventions & Sinfonias. The other sphere to set its total stamp on the life and recordings of Blandine Verlet : French music of the 18th Century, including two prodigious albums devoted to Duphy and Balbastre, a collection of baroque sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Catherine Courtois, and the six Sonatas from Chédeville’s Il Pastor Fido with Jean-Claude Veilhan and Jean Lamy. Add to this, two volumes of Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti of remarkable visionary acuity, and the sixteen Sonatas of Mozart’s youth recorded with the violinist Gérard Poulet. A beautiful version of Bach’s Concerto for Four Harpsichords alongside Sir Philip Ledger and Sir Andrew Davis complete Blandine Verlet’s legacy of for Philips. In the interests of completeness, also included in this edition is one of her earliest known studio recordings made for the Critère label in 1963 : Bach’s Concerto for 2 Harpsichords BWV 1062, with one her most important mentors, Ruggero Gerlin.

TRACK LIST

CD 1
CHÉDEVILLE Il pastor fido with Jean-Claude Veilhan and Jean Lamy / Rec. June 1970*
J.S. BACH Concerto for 2 Keyboards BWV 1062 with Ruggero Gerlin, conductor Roland Douatte / Rec. December 1963*

CDs 2 & 3
VIOLON ET CLAVECIN BAROQUES Duphly ∙ Francœur ∙ Chabran ∙ Mondonville ∙ Leclair ∙ Le Blanc with Catherine Courtois / Rec. June 1971*
MUSIQUES POUR LES PRINCESSES DE FRANCE, Vol. 1 Duphly ∙ Balbastre Rec. January 1972*
MUSIQUES POUR LES PRINCESSES DE FRANCE, Vol. 2 Duphly ∙ Balbastre Rec. Released 1977*

CDs 4 & 5
MOZART Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin with Gérard Poulet / Rec. June 1974 & January 1975

CDs 6* & 7
D. SCARLATTI 30 Sonatas Rec. May 1974**

CDs 8 & 9
J.S. BACH Complete Toccatas ∙ Fantasia BWV 922 ∙ Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue Rec. January–February 1973*
J.S. BACH Overture in the French Style ∙ Italian Concerto ∙ 4 Duettos Rec. December 1977
CDs 10 & 11
J.S. BACH Complete Partitas, BWV 825–830 Rec. February–March 1977

CD 12
J.S. BACH Goldberg Variations BWV 988 Rec. March 1978*

CDs 13 & 14
J.S. BACH Complete French Suites, BWV 812–817 Rec. January–February 1979*
J.S. BACH Inventions & Sinfonias, BWV 772–801 Rec. December 1983
J.S. BACH Concerto for 4 Harpsichords BWV 1065 with Raymond Leppard, Andrew Davis and Philip Ledger / Rec. April 1974

* first CD release
** first complete CD release