Concerts royaux : trios pour violon, violoncelle et piano

The Concerts royaux were written for the private Sunday concerts of Louis XIV in his final years, when the ageing king wanted intimate chamber music rather than the grand spectacle of his earlier reign. Couperin, who served as royal harpsichordist, left the instrumentation deliberately open, and the suites can be played by harpsichord alone or with various melody instruments, which has kept them in circulation in many different forms.