Let's just admit it:
Skip Sempé is one of the greatest harpsichordists in the world. His technique is staggering. His intelligence is stunning. His tone is commanding. His interpretations are compelling. His instincts are unerring. His intensity is unrelenting. In his many recordings for the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Astree labels, the New Orleans-born
Sempé has demonstrated that he is the heir as well as the student of
Gustav Leonhardt. In this 2004 Alpha recording,
Sempé performs a program of six suites plus a Pavanne by Louis Couperin. The music is noble, playful, mournful, sometimes suggestive, sometimes savage, and always virtuosic.
Sempé gets it, all of it, and plays it with everything he's got. Although there have been notable recordings of Louis Couperin's harpsichord music in the past -- notably
Davitt Moroney's magnificent, complete Pieces de Clavecin -- one has to go back to
Leonhardt's magisterial 1968 and 1980 recordings to hear Couperin played with this kind of conviction and inner compulsion. Alpha's sound is completely translucent and absolutely real.