01	Premier Concert - Prelude (Gravement)						02:56
	02	Premier Concert - Allemande (Legerement)						02:07
	03	Premier Concert - Sarabande (Mesure)						03:22
	04	Premier Concert - Gavote (Notes egales et cou)						00:59
	05	Premier Concert - Gigue (Legerement)						02:17
	06	Premier Concert - Menuet en Trio						01:34
	07	Second Concert - Prelude (Gracieusement)						03:16
	08	Second Concert - Allemande fuguee (Gayement)						02:19
	09	Second Concert - Air tendre						03:59
	10	Second Concert - Air contre-fugue (Vivement)						03:01
	11	Second Concert - Echos (Tendrement)						03:45
	12	Troisieme Concert - Prelude (Lentement)						04:05
	13	Troisieme Concert - Allemande (Legerement)						02:25
	14	Troisieme Concert - Courante						02:11
	15	Troisieme Concert - Sarabande (Grave)						04:07
	16	Troisieme Concert - Gavotte						02:10
	17	Troisieme Concert - Musette						03:21
	18	Troisieme Concert - Chaconne (Legere)						03:32
	19	Quatrieme Concert - Prelude (Gravement)						01:37
	20	Quatrieme Concert - Allemande (Legerement)						01:49
	21	Quatrieme Concert - Courante francaise (Galamment)						02:07
	22	Quatrieme Concert - Courante a l'italienne (Gayement)						02:52
	23	Quatrieme Concert - Sarabande (Tres tendrement)						03:37
	24	Quatrieme Concert - Rigaudon (Legerement at marque)						01:29
	25	Quatrieme Concert - Forlane Rondeau (Gayement)						02:53
	26	Septieme Concert - Prelude (Gracieusement)						01:42
	27	Septieme Concert - Allemande (Gayement, et les croches egales)						03:07
	28	Septieme Concert - Sarabande (Grave)						02:43
	29	Septieme Concert - Fuguete (Legerement)						03:22

Premier Concert:

Barthold Kuijken - transverse flute
Jurg Schaeftlein - oboe
Milan Turkovic - bassoon
Sigiswald Kuijken, Wieland Kuijken - bass viols
Robert Kohnen - harpsichord

Second Concert:

Barthold Kuijken - transverse flute
Jurg Schaeftlein - oboe
Sigiswald Kuijken - treble viol & bass viol
Janine Rubinlicht - violin
Wieland Kuijken - bass viol
Robert Kohnen - harpsichord

Troisieme Concert:

Barthold Kuijken - transverse flute
Jurg Schaeftlein - oboe
Milan Turkovic - bassoon
Sigiswald Kuijken - violin & bass viol
Janine Rubinlicht - violin
Wieland Kuijken - bass viol
Robert Kohnen - harpsichord

Quatrieme Concert:

Barthold Kuijken, Frans Bruggen - transverse flute
Jurg Schaeftlein - oboe
Milan Turkovic - bassoon
Sigiswald Kuijken, Janine Rubinlicht - violins
Wieland Kuijken - bass viol
Robert Kohnen - harpsichord

Septieme Concert:

Barthold Kuijken - transverse flute
Bruce Haynes - oboe
Sigiswald Kuijken - violin & bass viol
Wieland Kuijken - bass viol
Robert Kohnen - harpsichord



Concerts royaux, for harpsichord or violin, flute, oboe, viol & bassoon
Composer Francois Couperin
Genre Chamber Music
Composition Date 1722

Description
The four Concerts (or suites) were played at various times by the composer in 1714 and 1715 at the Sunday chamber concerts attended by King Louis XIV of France at his palace in Versailles, where Couperin was harpsichord tutor to the royal children. After publication their success encouraged Couperin to transcribe several violin sonatas in the Italian style and add three more keyboard suites with the title Les nations, later published as divertissements "to be played on all types of instruments," which did much to reinforce his wider reputation as a leading European composer.
Couperin was by no means a slave to the rigid conventions of the French court, and the music is a subtle blend of Italian and French styles. However, the king favored the "old styles," and there is also reason to believe he had a somewhat short attention span since some movements last only a couple of minutes. The number of pieces in each Concert ranges from five to seven, carefully balanced between dances, such as allemandes, gigues, minuets, and courantes, and the more aristocratic airs and sarabandes. Couperin slyly inserted a few less usual movements, such as the "Air contre" (a fugue) that unexpectedly appears in the second Concert and a demonstration of the differences between a "Courante francoise" and "Courante a l'Italiana" that follow one another in the fourth Concert.

Together the Concerts make a well-balanced collection of short pieces of a kind much admired in the French Baroque period, and widely imitated in other countries. They also brilliantly display the kind of ornamentation characteristic of the time. -- Roy Brewer