May Ito introduce you toa few selections from an album entitled Couperin Family, a disc containing recordings from a recital that took place in February 2020 in Madrid. The protagonist of this event, part of the Spanish Juan March Foundation's "Couperin on the harpsichord" project, was Benjamin Alard, a talented French artist with a passion for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Baroque repertoire in general, a harpsichordist who won the 2004 Bruges International Competition. His recent album focuses on the connections between the various members of the distinguished Couperin family of musicians who made history during the French Baroque period.

The harpsichord portrayed the intimate and sophisticated atmosphere of salon music, and composers from the Couperin family contributed to the shaping of a distinctive national musical style, incorporating elements of the Italian Baroque idiom into their creations. Their music has been particularly influential in the history of the harpsichord repertoire.

Benjamin Alard studied organ and harpsichord in Rouen, Paris and Basel. Since 2005, he has been performing as an organist at the church of Saint Louis in theIle de Paris and has performed in Europe, Japan and North America. He has recorded numerous albums and is currently working on a recording project dedicated to the complete harpsichord pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach. Benjamin Alard, at the age of 38, is one of the artists who successfully promotes the Baroque repertoire and is thoroughly trained in the study of early music, with an exceptional interpretative technique. He plays on a harpsichord by the Franco-Flemish craftsman Keith Hill, a copy of an original model by Andreas Rucker and Pascal Taskin that appeared around 1700.