A new recording, unique in the catalogue, of the first (and only surviving) book of keyboard works by Charles de Mars (1702-1774).

Compared to many other composers of his era, we know a good deal about the life of de Mars (alternatively known as Demars), making it all the more surprising that the present collection represents all the music of his to have come down to us. He was born to a wax merchant in Sézanne, a small town on the border between the French regions of Brie and Champagne. Several of his relatives were musicians, organists in particular, such as his two brothers. Indeed, we can trace more than 12 members of the De Mars/Tourneur dynasty as organists all over France. Again, the curiosity is that none of their compositions have survived, though they would have written music for their posts just as Charles de Mars did.

There is a Handelian flavour to the harmony of the four suites in De Mars’s volume, which was published in 1735 and therefore could conceivably have been written with awareness of the older composer’s Eight Great Suites for harpsichord. Many features of the volume make it a singular body of work in the French harpsichord tradition. De Mars eschews descriptive titles for individual movements, and occasionally prescribes the performer to play with ‘notes égales’, and therefore specifically not in the inégale style which we associate with French keyboard composers of the day.

As a specialist in this field of unfamiliar keyboard repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries, with an impressive catalogue of Brilliant Classics albums already to his credit, Simone Pierini has explored the life and work of de Mars for himself, and produced an authoritative booklet essay to accompany his new recording of the Pièces de Clavecin. The Fanfare reviewer of his 3-CD album of keyboard sonatas by Hélène de Montgeroult considered it ‘a major addition to the catalogue’, noting that Pierini ‘plays with tremendous energy and conviction.’