Talks on Music | As Composer | As Harpsichordist | Editions: Armand-Louis Couperin
Talks on Music
As Composer
Martin Pearlman studied composition with Karel Husa and Robert Palmer at Cornell and received a Master's in composition from Yale, where he studied with Yehudi Wyner and worked in the electronic music studio.
Recent works include his 3-act Operoar! on Finnegans Wake of James Joyce; The Creation According to Orpheus for piano, harp and percussion soloists with string orchestra; and music for three Samuel Beckett plays (Words and Music, Cascando, and ...but the clouds...), commissioned by the 92nd Street Y in New York for the Beckett centennial and produced there and at Harvard University.
Please visit the Press Kit for further information on Pearlman’s compositions.
As Harpsichordist
Martin Pearlman studied harpsichord on a Fulbright Grant to Amsterdam with the great harpsichordist and early music pioneer Gustav Leonhardt, who was one of his major musical influences. He then went to Yale, where he worked with the noted harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick. He won prizes in the Erwin Bodky competition in Boston, Massachusetts, and in the Festival of Flanders competition in Bruges, Belgium, and subsequently performed many solo recitals and concertos in the United States and Europe.
Louis Couperin, Suite in C
Scarlatti
Editions: Armand-Louis Couperin
Martin Pearlman’s critical edition of Armand-Louis Couperin's complete keyboard works is available here for viewing or for free download. Recorded excerpts from it are below.
His other editions, made primarily for his use with Boston Baroque, include new performing versions of Monteverdi's operas Il ritorno d'Ulisse and L'incoronazione di Poppea, an orchestration and edition of Cimarosa's Il maestro di cappella, music of the early American Moravian church, and other works.
Armand-Louis Couperin: Complete Keyboard Works
Music by the last great member of the Couperin family. Critical edition by Martin Pearlman.
Edition includes:
- Preface (biography, instruments, sources, critical notes)
- Piéces de clavecin
- Other solo keyboard pieces
- Works for two harpsichords
NOTE: Of the pieces for two harpsichords, the 1st and 3rd Quatuors have lost their second harpsichord parts. Pearlman has written those parts to complete those pieces for this edition. You can hear the first recordings of them here.
While this edition may be downloaded for free, performances of the first and third Quatuors should give the following program credit: "Missing second harpsichord part by Martin Pearlman."
Click here to be directed to the Press Kit page to download the Edition.