François Couperin (1668-1733), who was already in his lifetime called "Couperin le grand", is considered the greatest French composer between Lully and Rameau. Couperin is a unique composer with an individual voice, who has devoted his life to distilling a musical style that fuses the Italian and French tastes into what he termed "the perfection of music."

Unlike other composers who have written liturgical, orchestral and dramatic music, Couperin was occupied almost exclusively with instrumental chamber music. Among his works are four books of music for harpischord, two collections of concerts, and a large body of works for trio. This body of trios includes the collection "Les Nations", the apothéoses of Corelli and Lully, and a number of sonatas for trio and quartet, which have survived in two manuscripts in Lyon and Paris.

In the preface to "Les Nations" Couperin explains how the collection came to be: "Some of the trios included here were composed already some years ago - and were distributed throughout the world... From time to time I have added to their number and I'm certain that true music lovers would be satisfied by them. The first sonata in this collection is also the first I ever wrote and the first ever written in France. The story itself is unique.

"After having heard the sonatas of M. Corelli, which I will adore all my life... I have ventured to write one myself, which I had performed at the same concert in which I heard those of Corelli. Knowing the attraction of the French to foreign novelty, and being unsure of myself, I've made myself a service by means of a "technical" deceit. I pretended that a relative of mine, in truth in the service of the king of Sardinia, has sent me a sonata by a new Italian composer. I've rearranged the letters of my name into an Italian-sounding name which I used. The sonata was received with enthusiasm, and I need not defend myself. This has encouraged me to write more sonatas, and my Italian name has brought me, in disguise, much applause."

The collection "Les Nations" was published in 1726 and includes four orders, each of which contains a trio sonata (usually in the form of a sonata da camera) followed by a dance suite in the same key. Three of the four sonatas have also survived in two manuscripts, and looking at the three sources it seems that these sonatas were apparently written some 30 years before the publication date, and show a very strong Corellian influence. The suites which couperin has added, as well as the 3rd sonata, are written in a more mature and distinctly French style.

At first glance it seems that the orders are very much alike - all of them have more or less the same structure of movements - but looking more deeply it becomes apparent that the titles of the orders: "La Francoise", "L'Espagnole", "L'Imperiale", "La Piemontoise", are not incidental. In each order Couperin brings forth the characteristics of a certain national style: "La Francoise" has simple and sweet melodies, "L'Espagnole" has sharp rythms and profuesely ornamented lines, "L'Imperiale" (that is, the German) is highly erudite with very long subjects, and "La Piemontoise" is written in imitation of a Corelli sonata and ends with an Italian giga.

In spite of the French zeal for the French style, and the polemics that evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries between supporters of the French taste and those of foreign influences, the French have always embraced foreign novelties (as Couperin himself writes) and also enjoyed parodies on foreign national styles, as is evident in works such as Lully's music for "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" and countless other works that imitate Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, English and even Turkish manners and traits, by composers such as Marin Marais, Jean-Phillippe Rameau and of course Couperin.

We have therefore prepared four different programs built around the orders in "Les Nations", each bringing forth a national style as seen through French eyes. In addition, a fifth program presents the two apothéoses which Couperin has dedicated to Corelli and Lully, who in his eyes epitomized the Italian and French styles. The two apothéoses are written as programmatic music, wherein each movement represents a dramatic scene, that tells the story of the deification of Corelly and Lully and their ascent to mount Parnassus, the seat of Apollo, the patron of music.

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