Louis Couperin's "Préludes non mesurés" are an important collection of French keyboard music from the mid 17th century. Louis, incidentally, is the uncle of the famous François Couperin, whose harpsichord works were published only after 1700. The major problem confronting an editor here is the fact that the autograph has been lost. Copyists of Couperin's day and the editors who based themselves on their copies were unable to reproduce Couperin's works in a musically consistent and satisfying way. Couperin's metrically free notation (= non mesurés) and the imprecise length of the held notes ("tenues") present problems that are difficult to solve. They call for the style-critical competence of a Glen Wilson, who elucidates his decisions and confirms his own experience as an interpreter of these works in the enclosed CD, which offers one of several possible interpretations of the "Préludes".


This edition has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize.