Towards the end of the 18th century, Paris enjoyed a musical tradition that granted the harpsichord a central place in its repertoire. Instrument makers had responded to the demands of composers for all kinds of technical capacities from the harpsichord; thus the late French harpsichord was a keyboard instrument not unto itself but very different from the harpsichords of Italy, Southern Germany, and the rest of Europe. The music performed on this recording spans from the final years of the 1760s to the late 1770s, and was written, or published, in Paris.