Les Apothéoses

Les Apothéoses brings together three landmarks of the French and Italian Baroque, each arranged for organ by August Guan.

Geminiani's Concerto Grosso in D minor was arranged on Corelli's sonata Op. 5 No. 12 'La Folia', first published in 1726. Couperin's two Apothéoses, published one and two years before, answer it from the French side: extended apotheosis scenes written to honour Corelli and Lully imagining the two composers meeting on Parnassus and, in Couperin's telling, finally reconciling French and Italian style.

All three works were composed for different sizes of string ensembles, yet each bases on the trio fundamental that makes them also convincing on the organ, in either French or German styles.

Programme:
Geminiani (arr. August Guan) Concerto in D minor 'La Folia', H. 143 (1726)
François Couperin (arr. August Guan) L'Apothéose de Lully (1725)
François Couperin (arr. August Guan) L'Apothéose de Corelli (1724)