Blandine Verlet

Blandine Verlet (27 February 1942 – 30 December 2018)[1][2] was a French harpsichordist and a harpsichord teacher, who is known internationally for her recordings of works by François Couperin.

Career

Born in Paris into a musical family of art historians and conservators, she was the seventh of ten children, and in 1957, gained admission to the Conservatoire de Paris, studying piano and harpsichord. Having decided on her specialty, she studied harpsichord with Huguette Dreyfus in Paris,[3] Ruggero Gerlin in Siena and with Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University.[4] A significant competition prize in Paris in 1963 led to engagements in Italy and Germany.

Verlet was widely praised for her recordings of Bach's music, including the Goldberg Variations.[5] She is perhaps best known for having played the music of her compatriot François Couperin, displaying exceptional sensitivity and imagination. Verlet recorded Couperin's complete works in the 1970s and '80s, and in late 2011 she returned to re-record five 'ordres' on the period Henri Hemsch harpsichord. Verlet wrote a poem in celebration of Couperin which accompanied the release, the closing lines of which exemplify her great imaginative empathy with this key French composer:

We hope we too have managed to grasp
your art of playing the harpsichord.
The art of both poetry and precision.
The art of whispering, murmuring.
The song without words, lighter for having no text.
Wandering shadows, expressions of the heart.
Our thanks to you, Francois Couperin. (tr. Mary Pardoe)

During the 1980s Verlet taught at the Conservatoire Claude Debussy in Paris, the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré de GrandAngoulême, and the Conservatoire de Bordeaux.[6]

Verlet died at the age of 76.[7]

Personal life

Blandine Verlet's father, Pierre Verlet, was the head of the decorative arts department of the Louvre from 1933 to 1972; her mother, Nicole Verlet-Réaubourg, was an art historian; and her sister, Colombe Samoyault-Verlet, was also a historian and conservator.[8]

Her husband, Igor B. Maslowski, was the director of Philips France as well as a Russian translator and mystery writer.[9][10]

Discography

References
  1. Moller, Nathalie (30 December 2018). "Disparition de la claveciniste française Blandine Verlet" (in French). France Musique. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  2. "Décès de Blandine Verlet" (in French). ResMusica. 30 December 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  3. Baumont, Olivier (2015). Antoinette Fouque, Mireille Calle-Gruber, Béatrice Didier. "Le Dictionnaire universel des créatrices". Edition des femmes. ISBN 2721006517.
  4. Serrou, Bruno (30 November 2016). "La classe de clavecin du Conservatoire de Paris". La Revue du Conservatoire (3). ISSN 2265-2876.
  5. Haskins, Rob (2016). Classical Listening: Two Decades of Reviews in The American Record Guide. Rowman & Littelfield. ISBN 978 1 44 224935 6.
  6. Puech, Benjamin (2019-12-31). "Mort de la claveciniste Blandine Verlet, exceptionnelle interprète de François Couperin". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 2020-12-26.
  7. Mort de la claveciniste Blandine Verlet, exceptionnelle interprète de François Couperin on Le Figaro (31 12 2018)
  8. Alcouffe, Daniel (2009). "Colombe Samoyault-Verlet (1938-2009)". Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 167: 623–627.
  9. "Mort de la claveciniste Blandine Verlet" (in French). 2019-01-02. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  10. "Igor B. Maslowski (1914-1999)". data.bnf.fr. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
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