Renotte: Pièces de Clavecin

Renotte: Pièces de Clavecin
Composer Hubert Renotte
Artist Fernando De Luca harpsichord
Format 3 CD
Cat. number 97561
EAN code 5028421975610
Release October 2025

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About this release

Another discovery unearthed by Brilliant Classics, and another name to add to the library of French-Baroque masters, from the voraciously inquisitive mind and virtuoso hands of Fernando de Luca.
Who was Hubert Renotte (1704-1745)? He was born and died in the Belgian city of Liège, and for the last decade of his life served as the titular organist of the cathedral there. Accordingly he wrote a good deal of church music, which remains as overlooked as his output for keyboard. This in itself encompasses not only organ music but the distinctively Franco-Italian style of the harpsichord pieces presented for the first time on record in the present album.
The C major Suite is launched in dazzling style with ‘Les Roulades et Harpeggio’, living up to its title with cascades of sequences up and down the keyboard. Renotte must have been quite the technician, as well as a composer of great taste and refinement. Perhaps he had a sense of humour, too, to judge from the third movement of the suite: ‘Les Bagatelles Ou Les Folies De Liège & Menuet En Suite Des Bagatelles’. Again, true to the title, Renotte presents a series of sharply etched, fantastical sketches, which we might now hear as proto-Beethovenian in their oblique and disconcerting wit. The Suite concludes with, literally, ‘Le Torrent’, another sparkling cataract of notes.
Whether or not Renotte ever intended them to be played in sequence this way - the music survives in manuscript, and there is no sign that they were published - the other pieces are also gathered up by key signature. There are 17 such pieces in D major, including a ‘Pastorella’ whose charming character belongs to the association of the key with country manners.
On this new recording, Fernando de Luca plays a modern copy by Claudio Capone of a Blanchet harpsichord from 1754. While Jos van Immerseel recorded an LP-length selection of Renotte’s works, this is the first time that the composer’s surviving keyboard music has been recorded complete. The album represents another feather in the cap for a musician who has done a great deal to revive forgotten names from 18th-century music with complete surveys of their music on Brilliant Classics, among them Dufour, Foucquet, Jollage and Siret. ‘[De Luca] thinks outside of the box, and he clearly is a man with discerning tastes. These extend to his playing, which is clear-headed and disciplined, but never rigid. “Charm” is such an overused word, but I cannot think of a better one to describe this music and these performances.’ (Fanfare on the Jollage album, January 2024)

Track list

Disk 1

  1. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en La [in A]: I. La Badinne
  2. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en La [in A]: II. 1er Menuet - 2me Menuet
  3. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en La [in A]: III. Rondeau
  4. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en La [in A]: IV. L’Enjoué
  5. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en La [in A]: V. Musette lourée
  6. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en La [in A]: VI. Marche des pandoures
  7. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: I. Allegro
  8. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: II. Rondeau. Presto
  9. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: III. Menuet
  10. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: IV. Le petit rien & 4 variations
  11. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: V. Rondeau en musette
  12. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: VI. Menuet
  13. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: VII. Andante
  14. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: VIII. Allegro [Gigue]
  15. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: IX. Rondeau. Allegro
  16. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: X. [Petit] Menuet
  17. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XI. Andante & variation
  18. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XII. Menuet
  19. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XIII. Allegro
  20. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XIV. Suitte [du précédent] allegro en mineur
  21. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XV. Allegro
  22. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XVI. Allegro
  23. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XVII. Rondeau
  24. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XVIII. Gigue en suitte
  25. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en Sol [in G]: XIX. Allegro

Disk 2

  1. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en fa [in F]: I. Rondeau. Pas trop vite mais gratieusement
  2. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en fa [in F]: II. Menuet
  3. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en fa [in F]: III. Andante & variation
  4. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en fa [in F]: IV. Marche des miquelets
  5. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en fa [in F]: V. Allegro
  6. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: I. Andante
  7. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: II. Allegro
  8. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: III. 1er Menuet – 2me Menuet en mineur
  9. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: IV. Andante & variation
  10. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: V. Andante
  11. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: VI. Allegro
  12. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: VII. Andante
  13. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: VIII. Allegro
  14. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: IX. Cæciliana. Andante
  15. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: X. Allegro
  16. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XI. Marche des chasseurs en fanfare – Marche des H.
  17. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XII. Allegro
  18. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XIII. Pastorella
  19. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XIV. Allegro
  20. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XV. Allegro
  21. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XVI. Andante
  22. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ré [in D]: XVII. Allegro

Disk 3

  1. Hubert Renotte: Pièces in si bémol [in B-flat]: I. Allegro non troppo
  2. Hubert Renotte: Pièces in si bémol [in B-flat]: II. Allegro
  3. Hubert Renotte: Pièces in si bémol [in B-flat]: III. Andante & 2 variations – Gigue en suite de l’andante
  4. Hubert Renotte: Pièces in si bémol [in B-flat]: IV. Allegro
  5. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: I. Les roulades et harpegio
  6. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: II. Rondeau. Louré
  7. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: III. 1er Menuet – 2me Menuet en trio
  8. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: IV. Rondeau
  9. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: V. Gigue
  10. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: VI. Rondeau. Cantabile
  11. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: VII. Andante – Allegro
  12. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: VIII. Les bagatelles ou les folies de liège & 11 variations – Menuet en suitte des folies de liège
  13. Hubert Renotte: Pièces en ut [in C]: IX. Le torrent. Allegro