Jacquet: Suite No 2 in G minor - No 1: Prélude Mishka Rushdie Momen (piano) Filmed at St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London, United Kingdom Read more and order the CD: https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68484 *** Born in 1665, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre was the daughter of an organist and harpsichord teacher, and a true child prodigy. The arts journal Le Mercure Galant recorded her impressive debut before Louis XIV: She is a five-year-old child whom Mr. Jacquet has made comparable to the most skilled in just six or seven months. It is truly glorious for him to perform miracles outside his household, just as he has done within it. This child, known to everyone as ‘the little Michon’, has played three times on the organ of the King’s Chapel, the same pieces she plays on the harpsichord. There is nothing more astonishing than to see her, at her age, with hands strong enough to play such a heavy instrument. Her reputation is already so great that everyone hastens to come and see her … Jacquet was taken under the wing of two central figures in Louis’ court. In 1673, Madame de Montespan, the King’s mistress, encouraged her to provide entertainments for her guests at court, which she continued to do over the following three to four years. Madame de Maintenon, who came to the court as governess to Louis’ illegitimate children and eventually became his wife, founded a school for girls of noble birth but from families of limited means, and supervised Jacquet’s upbringing and education. Jacquet left royal service in 1682, when the court relocated from Paris to Versailles, and she married the organist Marin de La Guerre two years later. With every mention of her name a superlative follows closely behind: ‘the marvel of our age’, ‘a prodigy of a different sort’. At the age of just twenty, her first dramatic work was premiered at Versailles, and at twenty-two, she presented her first collection of harpsichord pieces to the King. In 1694, the same year as the birth of her child, she published an opera, Céphale et Procris: the first to be written by a woman in France, performed at the Théâtre du Palais Royal, Paris. Her harpsichord pieces are adventurous and florid, combining dramatic Italianate touches with French rhetorical gestures. The Suite in G minor begins with an unmeasured prelude, recalling those by Louis Couperin. An allemande follows, then two courantes, a sarabande and paired gigues, and the suite ends with an elusive and unshowy menuet. Her appetite for ornamentation is generally extravagant and seems to reflect her own natural virtuosity at the keyboard, so much so that occasionally I have slightly adapted some of the trills and tremblements to account for the modern piano’s greater immediacy and power, and to avoid disrupting the flow of the dances. from notes by Mishka Rushdie Momen © 2026 *** Follow Mishka Rushdie Momen: Facebook - @mishkarushdiemomen X - @mishkapianist Instagram - @mishkamomen Follow Hyperion: Instagram / Facebook / X / Bluesky - @hyperionrecords #mishkarushdiemomen #hyperion #jacquetdelaguerre #hallofmirrors