Couperin’s two suites for bass viol and continuo from 1728 contain some of the finest music written for them. They were the last of his works to be published during his lifetime and may have been prompted by the death that year of his friend and colleague Marin Marais (the second suite even includes a “Pompe funèbre”). Although they have been recorded before by such artists as Jordi Savall and Wieland Kuijken, they aren’t as well known as they deserve to be.

Markku Luolajan-Mikkola plays with enormous reverence and attention to detail. Yet some listeners will find these performances lacking in panache. Melodies on the top string should sing out, phrases could be more punctuated with slivers of silence. Initial pick-up notes occasionally lack energy, witty hemiolas pass by almost unnoticed and the trills (especially in sequences) give scant hint of the increasing harmonic tension. Couperin was not, himself, a serious viol-player – though he did own several instruments – and relied upon keyboard ornaments rather than those specifically used by players like Marais. If he had been, he surely would have indicated swells (énflés) on some of the longer notes.

Four years earlier, in 1724, Couperin published Les goûtes-réünis, a collection of chamber music, mainly in two parts and suitable for a variety of instruments, including viols. In this recording Luolajan-Mikkola and fellow Finn, Mikko Perkola, perform three of the 10 concerts. In No 10, the upper part has been transposed down an octave except in the “Plainte”; the overall effect is pleasing, though the “Air tendre” and “La tromba” cry out for a treble instrument. The duet-playing here is superb