Froberger:Harpsichord Suites, Christophe Rousset

Johann Jakob Froberger wanted all his music burned after his death because he didn't think anyone else would be able to play it well enough. He would surely have been reassured by the deep understanding of Christophe Rousset, who uses an exquisite 17th-century Couchet harpsichord, unequally tuned. The grave eloquence of Froberger's sarabandes is perfectly captured and only the long pauses before repeated sections seem overdone. The programmatic "Lament on the Death of Ferdinand IV" evaporates at the top of the keyboard, the rising scale disappearing into a cloud of angels in the manuscript.