Gaspard Le Roux: Complete Suites

Featuring

Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Gaspard Le Roux

Did you know?

1/7

Compositional Technique

The seven Suites in Le Roux's collection are confidently organized and invite being read as a coherent whole, with a deliberate structure that avoids repetition and gives each suite a distinct character.

Recording & Production

This album features the first recording of Gaspard Le Roux's Pièces de clavessin on piano, with the performer Daniel-Ben Pienaar conflating the solo harpsichord and trio versions of the music.

Performer Biography

Daniel-Ben Pienaar, the pianist on this recording, is known for his individual interpretations of German piano classics and for playing an extensive repertoire of pre-Bach works on the piano.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The 1705 publication has a 'do-it-yourself' element, encouraging musicians to use the music in the form most suited to their abilities, suggesting both pedagogical and commercial dimensions.

Compositional Technique

Le Roux's 1705 publication, Pièces de clavessin, includes pieces presented in two formats: a beautifully engraved keyboard score and a version for two melody instruments with continuo, often containing additional voices.

Composition History

Gaspard Le Roux obtained a 'privilège du Roi' on April 4, 1705, granting him the rights to publish and sell his work, which would have extended for a decade.

Composer Biography

So little is known about Gaspard Le Roux, the composer of these keyboard suites, that some theories suggest he might not have existed at all, or that the name is a pseudonym.