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Couperin has written that he preferred that which moved him to that which surprised him. As we listen to his 27 Ordres we become more and more aware of how beautifully he uses one note, one unexpected ninth or melodic turn to allow the composition to transcend any suspicion of pretty banality. But the painfully dissonant hammered chords of the Passacaille, the tragedy of its penultimate couplet, reach our ears with as much nobility and sentiment as a fountain statue in the park of Versailles or a tragic monologue in a play by Racine. Passion and poise are so perfectly balanced in Couperin’s music that though the real world might, at any instant, crumble under our feet, we are, as long as his music is our reality, living in a world of Calme, Luxe et Volupté. "For this recording, I have chosen Couperin at his most dramatic, powerful and often tragically brilliant. The Troisiême Ordre is a finely chosen selection of pieces in C minor and major. While Couperin may have had no specific overall architecture in mind for this selection, he is successful in offering us great variety, ranging from the classical theatricality of La Ténébreuse and the tender sighing of Les Regrets to the riotous clowning of Les Matelotes Provençales. Let us remember that when he gathered the music for his first book of harpsichord works, he was amassing selections from over 20 years of composing. This is truly a retrospective collection of harpsichord pieces." - Andrew Appel