For exactly 30 years, Amarillis has been one of the finest independent ensembles playing historical instruments. Founded at the instigation of flautist and oboist Héloïse Gaillard, Amarillis is committed to exploring the lesser-known side of music, usually baroque, with refinement and imagination.

With Jeux de Dames, Héloïse Gaillard and Jeanne Jourquin present this programme as portraits: that of the ladies – recalling at the same time the role they played in the Baroque period as performers or patrons of musical creation – and that of love. Its two parts combine extracts from Couperin's harpsichord pieces (La Mistérieuse, La Favorite, La Voluptueuse, Les Amusemens... ), as well as his famous Concert no.9 'Ritratto dell'amore', 'Portrait of Love', echoed by works by Anne Danican Philidor, Robert de Visée, Gautier de Marseille (Les Heures heureuses, Les Plaisirs...) and Jacques Duphly (Les Grâces), with the occasional contribution of Eleanor Lewis on viola da gamba.

This new recording also owes its uniqueness to an exceptional guest, a harpsichord made by Jacques Braux in 1986. Played by some of the world's greatest musicianss, this fabulous instrument, inspired by Flemish harpsichords 'ravalés' (enlarged and modernised by French harpsichord makers), derives a unique sonority and smoothness from the research carried out by Jacques Braux. They are immortalised for the first time in this eloquent, sensitive and poetic album.