Musical Portraits from the Salons of Paris

One frequenter of salon concerts, Hubert Le Blanc, reports that “nothing in the world surpassed the pleasure of listening to sonatas played by Forqueray (the father) and Monsieur Bellmont”. It is likely that these two famous gamba players gave the first performances of many of Forqueray’s works for two viola da gamba. It is in this form that both La Bellmont and La Portugaise originated. Forqueray’s son Jean-Baptiste-Antoine published the works not only in their original form as gamba duets, but also in these transcriptions for the harpsichord.

To meet a Scotsman amongst this assemblage of Parisian dignitaries is somewhat surprising. Pierre-Jacques-Macgregor Drummond, Captain of the Royal Scottish Regiment, went to Paris as part of Bonny Prince Charlie’s attempt to assemble troops. La Forqueray is one of many tributes by his contemporaries to this revered composer; as well as providing a portrait of Forqueray — capricious, whimsical, bizarre — the piece is a glimpse, through Duphly’s eyes, of Forqueray’s compositional style.

Balbastre dedicated his first book of harpsichord pieces to Madame Suzanne-Félix de Caze. Madame de Caze and Monsieur l’Abbé d’Héricourt were both students of Jacques Duphly; when Balbastre arrived in Paris in 1750, both chose the younger and more flamboyant teacher. Other personages among Balbastre’s students were Thomas Jefferson’s daughter and Marie Antoinette.