In addition to three outstanding harpsichordists, this recording features an original Baroque instrument as one of its stars. A gift bequeathed to the foundation «La Ménestrandie» by Hélène Teyssère-Vuilleumier, the magnificent Stirnemann harpsichord was restored by André Extermann. The musicians who have had the privilege of playing the instrument have been unanimous in their praise and thus provided the impetus for Claves Records to feature it in a recording.

The harpsichord possesses two keyboards of 61 keys each (five octaves, FF–f’’’); it lacks a coupler but has a so-called «dogleg» stop. The signature Jacob Stirnemann fecit, 1777 is located around a rose painted on the sound board as well as on the board above the upper keyboard. This magnificently decorated instrument is on permanent exhibit at the Geneva Museum of Art and History (Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève).

The music of three Baroque masters, François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Ramea and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, as performed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Anne Gallet and Christiane Jaccottet illuminate the many sides of this instrument and its beautiful sonorities.

This CD is especially dedicated to the memory of Christiane Jaccottet, who passed away only a few months after having made the recording of Rameau’s Suite in E.