It used to be thought a remarkable example of filial devotion, not to speak of Christian forgiveness, that Jean-Baptiste Forqueray should have made harpsichord transcriptions of some of his father Antoine’s pieces for gamba. For Antoine, celebrated as one of the most brilliant viol players of his day and appointed a chamber musician to Louis XIV, was also crotchety and cruel (as his unfortunate wife had to testify in a lengthy legal battle), and not only had had Jean-Baptiste thrown into prison but had even tried to have him banished from the kingdom on charges of debauchery. It now seems, however, that the harpsichord arrangements were very possibly not by Jean-Baptiste but by his second wife (by all accounts an accomplished player) and that the pieces were by her husband (also an excellent viol player), not her father-in-law. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, a gamba original may be adduced from the low tessitura which the pieces favour – strikingly so in La Bellemont – though the many graces and virtuoso embellishments are entirely characteristic of their new medium. (Those wishing to sample the gamba versions can be confidently referred to Jay Bernfeld’s recording on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (5/92.)
The Canadian harpsichordist Luc Beausejour obviously revels in the dramatic fire, the technical challenges (regarded as almost insuperable by the Forquerays’ contemporaries) and in the sometimes bold harmonies of these pieces. Playing a richly sonorous but unidentified instrument, he immediately captures attention by the dash with which he attacks La Forqueray and by his exuberant rhythmic gaiety in La Portugaise (both in Suite No. 1); and he fully maintains his hold later on in texturally more complex pieces – La Angrave has a fine, vigorous forward impulse, La Boisson has splendidly boisterous panache, and La Regente is properly pompous. If Beausejour has a fault, it is perhaps even an excess of vivacity: he is certainly calm in La Du Vaucel and expressively lyrical in La Cottin, but La Tronchin could be thought over-cheerful. His articulation is beautifully crisp and clean throughout, and in La Sylva, without making things sound messy, he follows Forqueray’s injunction for the hands not to be played exactly together. This is a very welcome disc, free from the quirks of Meyerson’s performances listed above, and excellently recorded.
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