Something from before the early limit of most pianists’ repertoires, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1664-1729): Suite no. 2 in G from “Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le viollon [sic]” (1707): the Courante and Sarabande. Recorded many times on harpsichord, never formally on the piano (part of a side project of mine for the two 1707 suites).

Winning the attention and lifelong encouragement of Louis XIV after impressing him greatly as a child prodigy, Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet published two collections of keyboard suites, in 1687 (a set of four) and in 1707 (a set of two, displaying a more modern style than the first). After the death of her only child and husband, the organist Marin de la Guerre, in the early 1700s, she began presenting harpsichord recitals at her home, which she continued until 1717, and which won her great acclaim. “She had a marvelous talent for improvising and a fantasy with songs and harmonies extremely varied and in excellent taste…one can say that never has a person of her sex had such great talents as she for the composition of music and for the admirable way in which she performed it,” wrote Titon du Tillet, in a lengthy tribute three years after her death.Notable about the Courante apart from its florid ornamentation and constant shifting between three and two to a bar is the near immediate turn to the relative minor (E minor) and then an elaborate progression to the dominant minor (D minor). The sarabande is perhaps my favorite movement of the suite: the descending bass line, repeated twice at the end, is simply magical.

Practice your trills, kids!