"Offertoire sur les Grands Jeux" from Messe des Paroisses (Correct audio level))

This is the same thing as below, but with a higher audio level. Sorry for the mess, and thanky to Sanden's advice !

Couperin was really lucky to be allowed to play 8 minutes of music at the offertoire, including use of big reeds and dance-like movements ; now, the norm would rather be 1'30 max on the cor de nuit with perfect triads only and swell tightly shut :-).

This offertoire has three contrasting parts :
- a solemn ouverture on the grand jeu, typical of the Lully-Louis XIV french style ;
- a quiet middle part : a kind of ricercar in minor, first on cornet and cromorne, and then on the "fond d'orgue" (here, purists will frown, but IMHO the fond d'orgue suits much better to the mood of the music than the bombasting grand jeu that a litteral reading of the score could suggest) ;
- a lively "gigue à la française" on the grand jeu.

After the ST-Maximin recording, there are (from 8'10) some casual short extracts on Weissenau which could be described as "basically south-German with some French accent".



Amazingly, I could find no previous version of this rather well-known piece on CCH ; there are several uploads of the offertoire from "Messe des couvents" but there seems to be none of offertoire from "Messe des paroisses".