01-02-2019, 10:36 AM
Harpsichordist Blandine Verlet:
Blandine Verlet (27 February 1942 – 30 December 2018)[1][2] was a French harpsichordist and a harpsichord teacher, who is known internationally for her recordings of works by François Couperin.
Born in Paris into a musical family, she was the seventh of ten children, and in 1957 gained admission to the Conservatoire de Paris, studying piano and harpsichord. Having decided on her specialty, she studied harpsichord with Huguette Dreyfus in Paris,[3] Ruggero Gerlin in Siena and with Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University.[4] A significant competition prize in Paris in 1963 led to engagements in Italy and Germany.
Verlet was widely praised for her recordings of Bach's music, including the Goldberg Variations.[5] She is perhaps best known for having played the music of her compatriot François Couperin, displaying exceptional sensitivity and imagination. Verlet recorded Couperin's complete works in the 1970s and 80s, and in late 2011 she returned to re-record five 'ordres' on the period Henri Hemsch harpsichord. Verlet wrote a poem in celebration of Couperin which accompanied the release, the closing lines of which exemplify her great imaginative empathy with this key French composer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blandine_Verlet
Blandine Verlet (27 February 1942 – 30 December 2018)[1][2] was a French harpsichordist and a harpsichord teacher, who is known internationally for her recordings of works by François Couperin.
Born in Paris into a musical family, she was the seventh of ten children, and in 1957 gained admission to the Conservatoire de Paris, studying piano and harpsichord. Having decided on her specialty, she studied harpsichord with Huguette Dreyfus in Paris,[3] Ruggero Gerlin in Siena and with Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University.[4] A significant competition prize in Paris in 1963 led to engagements in Italy and Germany.
Verlet was widely praised for her recordings of Bach's music, including the Goldberg Variations.[5] She is perhaps best known for having played the music of her compatriot François Couperin, displaying exceptional sensitivity and imagination. Verlet recorded Couperin's complete works in the 1970s and 80s, and in late 2011 she returned to re-record five 'ordres' on the period Henri Hemsch harpsichord. Verlet wrote a poem in celebration of Couperin which accompanied the release, the closing lines of which exemplify her great imaginative empathy with this key French composer:
Quote:We hope we too have managed to graspVerlet died at the age of 76.[6]
your art of playing the harpsichord.
The art of both poetry and precision.
The art of whispering, murmuring.
The song without words, lighter for having no text.
Wandering shadows, expressions of the heart.
Our thanks to you, Francois Couperin. (tr. Mary Pardoe)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blandine_Verlet
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.