Music at the court of Louis XIV by
Jacques M. Hotteterre, François Couperin, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Michel P. de Monteclair, Michel de la Barre

Ulrike Volkhardt, Recorders
Ann Morgan, Harpsichord

That both music as well as literature led a second rich life in the city of Paris is something that is not as widely known. It was above all women who fashioned an intellectual space for artistic interexchange at a high level. Unconstrained by the conventional expectations and possibilities, Mademoiselle de Scudéry, among others, created a highly regarded literary salon that was also frequented by many men. As an author of novels (she initially published under the name of her brother), she was very successful and stood at the center of social life in the Cité. To her ten-volume novel Clélie, she added a Carte de Tendre, a veritable painted Map of Tenderness that was much noted by her contemporaries and also mentioned later. La Carte de Tenrde as a reflection of the importance that was attached especially to the detailed occupation with feelings and love found its counterpart in the countless and highly differentiated movement headings of the music at the court of Versailles. In music, too, there was a rich life outside the court. Active in the Cité were musicians and composers, including Jacquet de la Guerre, who was highly regarded throughout Europe already in her day. As the “illegitimate” daughter of the king, she was initially educated at court and trained as a harpsichordist and composer. She then married, and did not continue to cultivate her own skills. However, after the death of her husband, she again composed intensively and in this way attained great recognition and esteem. With her music and that of the male court composers, the program leads into the not only courtly, and not only Baroque Arcadia of feelings. One highlight of the CD is the exertion of one of the only twelve still existing original two-manual harpsichords by Andreas Ruckers from 1628 which survived times in nearly unchanged mode.