Jory Vinikour

LUnique: Harpsichord Music Of Francois Couperin Jory Vinikour

Two-time Grammy Award-nominated harpsichordist Jory Vinikour plays historically groundbreaking works by François Couperin (1668-1733) on an album comprising three inventive Couperin suites -- the composer called them "Ordres" -- combining traditional French Baroque dance movements with witty and atmospheric character pieces -- miniature tone poems for solo harpsichord. Couperin's suites "are elegantly composed, concealing a complex, allusive and varied emotional world behind their highly wrought surface" (Norton Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music).

Chicago-born, French-trained harpsichordist Vinikour is especially enamored of Couperin's Ordres Nos. 6, 7, and 8, calling them "remarkable" for their harmonically driven melodic invention and atmospheric unity within each suite.