COUPERIN, François

Concert royal no. 1 for violin, flute, oboe, viol and bassoon in G major (version for oboe and basso continuo)

I. Prélude. Gravement

Ramón Ortega Quero, professor

Manuela Candela Muñoz, oboe

Candela Pérez González, bassoon

Alina Artemyeva, harpsichord

After the performance, the professor congratulates the student on her attention to detail in the score and on her control of dynamics in the soft passages. He suggests a freer embouchure so that the sound flows with more air and doesn't come across as too flat, especially in the long, expressive slurs typical of French Baroque music. Ortega recommends giving the sound more shape, more of an "o" quality, more volume — and demonstrates this with several examples played by himself. He also suggests playing the leading tone, the F-sharp, slightly lower in pitch, to avoid an overly tempered intonation and achieve a darker color.
They return to the beginning of the piece, and for the first movement, Grave, he advises playing the trills more slowly, less energetically, in line with this tempo. Instead of the tendency to close the phrase with the oboe, the professor proposes the opposite: creating more space so the sound is freer, which also requires greater relaxation.
He adds that the oboe and bassoon should find a balance between them, since the oboe's interpretation is too inégal and the bassoon's not inégal enough. The ending, finally, calls for more calm, to give a greater sense of peace.

Language: Spanish