Monique Zanetti, Francoise Masset, Matthieu Dupouy - Couperin: Lecons de Tenebres du premier jour, Messe pour les Convents / Campra: Cantate Domino (2013)

There’s an embarrassment of riches where Couperin’s Read more are concerned. My current favorite is Christie/Les Arts Florissants (Erato 017067), with Patricia Petibon and Sophie Daneman—the latter exquisite in her tightly focused but sweet tone and immaculate ornamentation. Equally good in its way, with a slightly richer tone though a trifle too expressively restrained for my tastes, is Christopher Hogwood with Emma Kirkby and Judith Nelson (L’oiseau Lyre 430283). For a different experience, consider the Theatre of Early Music, featuring two countertenor soloists, Daniel Taylor and Robin Blaze (BIS 1346). My usual criticisms of too many in that voice type—hootiness, poor enunciation, lack of variety in color and dynamics—do not apply to these gentlemen, though the tempos are over-restful.

The album under review comes closest in most respects to Kirkby/Nelson, and that’s high praise indeed. Monique Zanetti I previously lauded (no pun intended) in a recording of Steffani cantatas for her “enunciation, vibrant agility, bright tone, and dramatic style [which] deliver the goods in this music after a fashion that brings it to life.” As much can be said here, though she’s ever so marginally less accurate in her ornamentation than Daneman. Françoise Masset’s darker tone makes for an excellent contrast between the two in the Third Lesson.

The extras include three excerpts from Couperin’s Messe pour les Convents , which Mathieu Dupouy performs on a delightful 17th-century organ at Rozay-en-Brie that has been used for a variety of other recordings. Finally, all other issues to one side, you may want to get this release just for Campra’s Cantate Domine for two singers. I can’t find another currently available release of it, and the work’s combination of cheerful exuberance and Cavalli-like lyricism make it an excellent way to end a fine album. -- Barry Brenesal