Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was a harpsichord prodigy brought to the court of Louis XVI, France's Sun King, at the age of 12. Her music disappeared after her death in 1732, erased from historical memory like the works of other female composers in the way that Communist governments used to retouch photos in order to eliminate individuals deemed non-approved. Like Bach, she was a talented improviser at the keyboard. Her works, in various genres, were published with the king's approval, but they have only recently ...
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Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was a harpsichord prodigy brought to the court of Louis XVI, France's Sun King, at the age of 12. Her music disappeared after her death in 1732, erased from historical memory like the works of other female composers in the way that Communist governments used to retouch photos in order to eliminate individuals deemed non-approved. Like Bach, she was a talented improviser at the keyboard. Her works, in various genres, were published with the king's approval, but they have only recently been rediscovered. Recordings of her music are still rare, and this two-disc set may be the first real survey of her work as a whole. It covers music from her two books of Pièces de clavecin, separated from each other by two decades, as well as ballet music, songs, a violin sonata, sacred and secular cantatas, assorted songs, and more. There are also several spoken tracks with texts praising the talents of Jacquet de la Guerre.As can be seen from this list of genres, Jacquet de...
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