General Harpsichord and Clavichord Thread

[Leo K.]

Is anyone familiar with this recording?  It looks fascinating.

[asin]B0002VYF2Q[/asin]

I have it from a download, but haven't heard it yet. I will try to listen to it soon!

[Geo Dude]

I have it from a download, but haven't heard it yet. I will try to listen to it soon!

On that note, any thoughts on the Handel?

[Leo K.]

On that note, any thoughts on the Handel?

oops, I've been trapped in a vortex of Bach and haven't got to Handel yet   

[Geo Dude]

oops, I've been trapped in a vortex of Bach and haven't got to Handel yet   

No worries.  It's easy to get trapped in a vortex of Bach!

[Que]

An interesting new release!  (2CD)

Q

[Geo Dude]

Speaking of new releases, anyone have thoughts on this one?



My first impression is that the music is interesting (it's not Bach, but what is?) but the production isn't great.  It sounds rather thin to me.

[Mandryka]

I have bit different take on that, it seems to me that he hardened with years. His earlier recordings (Rameau, Couperin) are softer, more languid and lyrical than his later 80s stuff, try comparing his 1975 STIL Rameau with live e minor Suite from 1986 recital at Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert on INA, the later is much faster and driven. It might be just conjecture but I somehow always felt that drivenness and slight haste came as a result of AIDS diagnosis and desire to get more things done while there is still time. I could be completely off on this of course.   

I prefer the Bach partita on that record to the studio. It's more spontaneous sounding to me, less "worked."

[Geo Dude]

I've decided to reawaken this thread because I visited a harpsichord builder yesterday and thought that the harpsichord aficionados on this board would appreciate the write up.  Keeping in mind that this write up is intended for people who aren't familiar with the instrument, I think many will still enjoy it.

[Leon]

In my opinion

This recording

[asin]B0058RN84U[/asin]

Is a very good sounding recording, well played and would be a very good introduction to Couperin.

[Opus106]

I've decided to reawaken this thread because I visited a harpsichord builder yesterday and thought that the harpsichord aficionados on this board would appreciate the write up.  Keeping in mind that this write up is intended for people who aren't familiar with the instrument, I think many will still enjoy it.

I did, indeed. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Leo K.]

I've decided to reawaken this thread because I visited a harpsichord builder yesterday and thought that the harpsichord aficionados on this board would appreciate the write up.  Keeping in mind that this write up is intended for people who aren't familiar with the instrument, I think many will still enjoy it.

That was a wonderful article, thanks very much for that.

[Geo Dude]

I'm glad you two enjoyed it.  I've done a lot of writing intended to be read by an individual (papers for classes, letters to friends and relatives) but very little for a larger audience.  My blog is my first foray into writing for an audience rather than an individual and it's good to hear that it's enjoyable.

By the way, Leo, are you still in that Bach vortex?

[Mandryka]

I just want to make a post in praise of Skip Sempe, really to see whether there's anyone else who feels strongly about his style.

I love the way he is so bold and imaginative and gives the impression of being freely spontaneous. The raw energy in some of his recordings is breathtaking and yet there's also a real pleasure in lyricism sometimes, and IMO great depth of feeling.

I'll  single out three which I think show what I mean quite well.



I love the performances of the 1728 Viole Suites here partly because Jay Bernfeld's instrument is so earthy, and partly because the expression is so full of feeling. What it doesn't have is the sort of refined nobility that you hear in, for example, the record of the suites by Philippe Pierlot, but I see that as a deliberate thing in fact -- and a choice which I like. Anyway this is one record which I play a lot.

What is the statue on the cover? I love it.



What's remarkable about these Scarlatti sonatas for me is the way it is both energetic and yet does justice to the melodies in the music. It's a real achievement, and it probably ranks with Leonhardt on DHM as my favourite Scarlatti CD. Most of the sonatas are late works, when the style is less fancy and there's more emphasis on beauty and melody. Skip Sempe seems to me to have a real special intuition for the late Scarlatti style.



He also has a feel for the eventful style of the Buxtehude suites here. I don't know if it's pukka stylus fantasticus in this music, but there's loads of things happening all the time in the music and  there's a sort of improvisatory feel I think -- it seems to me to suit Skip Sempe's style to a tee.

[scarlattiglenross]

I saw him perform English music like Purcell and Gibbons a couple of years back. He is indeed a convincing performer with a sympathetic concern for ensemble and performance space.

[milk]

I saw him perform English music like Purcell and Gibbons a couple of years back. He is indeed a convincing performer with a sympathetic concern for ensemble and performance space.

I'm a fan as well. I love these was well:



I really want Sempe to tackle a complete Bach work for solo harpsichord.

[Mandryka]

I really want Sempe to tackle a complete Bach work for solo harpsichord.

The recording with the Partita has really repaid repeated listening to me. At first I thought it was just glib, with too much emphasis on bravura. But after a while I could see that that was just a knee jerk reaction to the fast speeds and that the Sarabande, for example,  is very movingly played.

I'm really tempted to get this despite the high prices being asked for it.



Here's the review from Gramophone magazine:

Not only purists but Bach-lovers too would be well advised to sit this one out; for the disc's avowed purposes are to illustrate Skip Sempe's theory that 'in the act of performance a performer must make the score his own' and the huge sonorities of which two closely recorded harpsichords are jointly capable of producing. The resultant heavy-handedly noisy and libertarian treatments are examples not so much of poetic licence as of licentiousness. One merely cringes at the free arrangements of music by Marcello, Vivaldi, Reinken and Duke Ernst of Sachsen-Weimar that first passed harmlessly through Bach's hands, but is goaded to protest at the indignities insensitively heaped on pieces such as Bach's own Preludio to the E major Violin Partita. Sempe, how could you? And be photographed laughing happily at your vandalism?

And here's an amazon review:

There have been many approaches to performing Bach, which is perfectly natural, given the variety of his music and the profound nature of so much of it. Nonetheless, in my view a sine qua non is some kind of understanding of the prevailing aesthetic of the time, which is centred on matters such as rhetoric, the affects and articulation. Bach wasn't in the business of writing 'nice' or 'beautiful' music as such, at least not in terms of the later Romanticist aesthetic. So it makes no sense to judge Bach performances today according to those criteria.

It's much more difficult to achieve some of these aspects using modern (really late 19th-century instruments), but the real point is understanding something of what lies behind the music -- the energy and (in Bach's case) sheer humanity. I don't believe an interpretation of his music can ever be successful if it doesn't take all of this into account. So that more or less eliminates 90% of the market for me.

Skip Sempe and Oliver Fortin ate mong the realtively small percentage of active musicians today who know what to do with Bach. They achieve a splendidly elemental performance that I find exhilharating. The clarity, energy (even rawness) and musical insight is tremendous. The sound is fabulous. Try doing this on a piano (or two pianos) and see what happens!Their fresh performances are not so much 'historical' (although they clearly understand hsitorical performance) as thoroughly modern -- late 20th and early 21st century -- taking the listener out of any comfort zones s/he may be accustomed to. Get this CD and change your life.

Anything that causes such strong opinions is worth hearing, no?

[milk]

The recording with the Partita has really repaid repeated listening to me. At first I thought it was just glib, with too much emphasis on bravura. But after a while I could see that that was just a knee jerk reaction to the fast speeds and that the Sarabande, for example,  is very movingly played.

I'm really tempted to get this despite the high prices being asked for it.



Here's the review from Gramophone magazine:

And here's an amazon review:



Anything that causes such strong opinions is worth hearing, no?

I'm going to re-listen to Sempe's partita the first chance I get. His Louis Couperin is magical. It's one of my favorite recordings. I'm curious as to what his next solo project will be. 

[Que]

I'm really tempted to get this despite the high prices being asked for it.



[...]
Anything that causes such strong opinions is worth hearing, no?

Worth hearing, yes. But.. I went to considerably trouble to find it - it is seriously OOP. When I did find it - it was even a brand new copy - I wasn't exactly bowled over....

I adore double harpsichord repertoire, but I have a few quibbles over this. Firstly, I don't think Sempé is a natural in Bach. He misses the rhythmic discipline and does some weird accentuation. It does seem in general a bit over the top and unsteady - also it the rapport between the two players. Too much bravoura?  I think so. Another thing is that not all the arrangements on the disc quite work. A lovely disc nonetheless, that has its brilliant moments. Not a disc to pass by when the opportunity arises for a harpsichord lover, but not worth spending a lot of time and/or money on either...

Q

PS Double harpsichord repertoire seems a perfect nice topic for this thread! I'll browse though my collection for some nice recommendations.

[Drasko]

PS Double harpsichord repertoire seems a perfect nice topic for this thread! I'll browse though my collection for some nice recommendations.

Both out of print, unfortunately.

[Mandryka]

Worth hearing, yes. But.. I went to considerably trouble to find it - it is seriously OOP. When I did find it - it was even a brand new copy - I wasn't exactly bowled over....

I adore double harpsichord repertoire, but I have a few quibbles over this. Firstly, I don't think Skempé is a natural in Bach. He misses the rhythmic discipline and does some weird accentuation. It does seem in general a bit over the top and unsteady - also it the rapport between the two players. Too much bravoura?  I think so. Another thing is that not all the arrangements on the disc quite work. A lovely disc nonetheless, that has its brilliant moments. Not a disc to pass by when the opportunity arises for a harpsichord lover, but not worth spending a lot of time and/or money on either...

Q

PS Double harpsichord repertoire seems a perfect nice topic for this thread! I'll browse though my collection for some nice recommendations.

Too late. I too found a new copy and I too have ordered it, but I haven't received it yet. But it wouldn't be surprising if the truth is between the amazon review and the Gramophone review.

The issue of how much bravura is too much bravura is an interesting one. And clearly bravura is a major part of what Sempe's about. Initially I reacted against the Bach partita and Chaconne transcription because it seemed to stress virtuosity so much, and I had a similar reaction to the Scarlatti CD, which at first seemed hard and brutal. But I've changed my mind now and I think I hear plenty of sensitivity and feeling in there -- when the music calls for it. But clearly he's not inward, introspective, contemplative.

I wonder if your problems with his rhythm apply to the music in that CD. If so it would certainly interst me if you could spell things out a bit more. I hadn't noticed anything problematic about the rubato in the slower music myself, but I could well have missed something.

What are the origins of this double harpsichord practice? When Sempe does it for Scarlatti for example I guess he's inventing the idea for himself.

By the way I've started to explore the other partner in the Sempe duo a bit -- Olivier Fortin. On  spotify there's a very fine and moving Bach violin sonata. But maybe even more interesting are his Rammeau pièces en concert with Masques. I only know that music really  through Leonhardt/Kuijken/Bruggen  and it's interesting to listen to the rhythm differences between them and Masques. Fun music, those pièces.