Harpsichordists - The New Generation

[Mandryka]

Elisabetta Guglielmin reveals hereself to be imaginative and poetic in her voice leading - Wolfgang Rübsam would approve I think. There's very little info that I can read on the web about her, apart from her Facebook page: she studied in Salzburg, she works in Turin . . . not much more info than that. She has released this and a Goldberg Variations..  Soft suite French harpsichord on the recording of Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, well enough recorded.


Here playing Froberger, rather cool headed, but again interesting voicing. 

https://youtube.com/v/HMDzd368JXc&feature=youtube

[Mandryka]

I hope this is not a sad story. Born in Japan; studied in Milan. That's all I can find out about Yu Yashimi. This Frescobaldi recording is excellent in absolutely every way. In the toccatas the sections are dramatically contrasted, it's not a linear interpretation, and yet they are unified. The harpsichord sounds fabulous. She demonstrates a noble and reflective disposition. It is a very promising debut album, which was released a couple of years ago.  Someone to watch out for, I would have said.

Why sad? Well, if you search for her on YouTube, there's just one track, something by Forqueray, and you find this comment, my guess from someone who knows her

Carmelo Bonifacio Malandrino
Mi dispiace che non sia stato accolto con gratitudine questo Autore che apprendo adesso essere molto ricco di talento melodico.Ma si sa: non tutti gli artisti sono fortunati da che mondo è mondo.
3 years ago

Well, let's hope she hasn't missed the boat.

[Mandryka]

Picchi: Toccata; Pass' e mezzo
T. Merula: Toccata im 2. Ton; Capriccio cromatico
Frescobaldi: Cento partite sopra passacaglia; Toccata Nr. 12
Storace: Ballo della battaglia; Ciaccona
Rossi: Toccata Nr. 7
G. Strozzi: Toccata de Passacagli, e ciascheduno puo sonarsi a solo; Toccata Nr. 1

Marianna Henriksson is a student of Mitzi Meyerson in Berlin and she has studied with Francesco Cera. This is her debut recording where she plays 17th century Italian harpsichord music.

One of Marianna Henriksson's main sources of inspiration is Roland Barthes'  Fragments d'un discours amoureux. In particular she is impressed by Barthes' idea that one of the things that art - literature or music - can do is simulate love, in addition to analyse and  describe it.

Heriksson believes that these pieces of music are declarations of love, and that her job as performer is to present them as if being said in the first person by the lover. To stage them. The I who says "I love you", Herrickson herself, is at the heart of the performance.

She also adopts a view which she claims is derived from 17th century Italian ideas that music is visceral - that it can effect bodily fluids to arouse passions in the listener. Her aim, for example, in playing a Rossi toccata is to make the listener feel sick.

The result is passionate to the point of melodrama and histrionics even. Operatic.

Lovely modern Italian harpsichord, 1/4 comma meantone,  well recorded. One of the tracks, a Strozzi toccata, has been adapted by Hericksson and has been heavily processed by her sound engineer to provide the effect of a drone.

An important release by any stretch of the imagination - only Blandine Verlet has played harpsichord like this before. Judge for yourself

https://www.youtube.com/v/7y-KgFAIiJM     https://www.youtube.com/v/dnjDqcOvpFo

[Wakefield]

Elisabetta Guglielmin reveals hereself to be imaginative and poetic in her voice leading - Wolfgang Rübsam would approve I think. There's very little info that I can read on the web about her, apart from her Facebook page: she studied in Salzburg, she works in Turin . . . not much more info than that. She has released this and a Goldberg Variations..  Soft suite French harpsichord on the recording of Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, well enough recorded.


Here playing Froberger, rather cool headed, but again interesting voicing. 

https://youtube.com/v/HMDzd368JXc&feature=youtube

She is very interesting, indeed. Beautiful touch...

[Wakefield]

Jean Rondeau is young, but he doesn't qualify as a discovering.

He's probably one of the most gifted harpsichordists of his generation: A wonder, a monster of technical dexterity... and that will be the main "problem" that he must overcome.

Judging on the basis of his recent Goldbergs for the project "All of Bach," he is walking the good road. 

http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-988/

[JCBuckley]

Thanks for the link, Gordo. Terrific video. Not sure about the Howard Hughes hairstyle though.

[Marc]

Thanks for the link, Gordo. Terrific video. Not sure about the Howard Hughes hairstyle though.

I must admit I could not care less.

[Mandryka]

Rondeau has very good marketing support. The cultivated demeanour, the names of his concept CDs, Vertigo à la Hitchcock, Imagine à la John Lennon, Dynastie à la Blake Carrington. All carefully designed to attract Generation Y. Even his choice of harpsichord makes us think of Scott Ross, which adds to his coolness and the suggestion of artist/poet.

The thing I enjoyed most from him is Zaide (Royer)

[Marc]

Rondeau has very good marketing support. The cultivated demeanour, the names of his concept CDs, Vertigo à la Hitchcock, Imagine à la John Lennon, Dynastie à la Blake Carrington. All carefully designed to attract Generation Y. Even his choice of harpsichord makes us thing of Scott Ross, which adds to his coolness and the suggestion of artist/poet.

The thing I enjoyed most from him is Zaide (Royer)

I.c. the attraction of Generation Y: most people I've met from that particular generation, have got no clue about nor much interest in Hitchcock, Lennon or Dynasty. If Rondeau really wants to attract them, I guess he should pick other names.

But this is a bit off-topic: I liked Rondeau's Goldbergs from the AllOfBach project, and I also enjoyed listening to his Vertigo disc (with Rameau and Royer). That's, for this time being, more than enough for me. The entire marketing thing is, in the end, his or his manager's choice. Whatever generation they wish to attract, I wish them good luck, but it will probably work only for a limited amount of time.

[Mandryka]

I.c. the attraction of Generation Y: most people I've met from that particular generation, have got no clue about nor much interest in Hitchcock, Lennon or Dynasty. If Rondeau really wants to attract them, I guess he should pick other names.

But this is a bit off-topic: I liked Rondeau's Goldbergs from the AllOfBach project, and I also enjoyed listening to his Vertigo disc (with Rameau and Royer). That's, for this time being, more than enough for me. The entire marketing thing is, in the end, his or his manager's choice. Whatever generation they wish to attract, I wish them good luck, but it will probably work only for a limited amount of time.

Zaide (Royer) is good. I'm not in the mood for the Goldberg Variations I can't bring myself to listen to it.

[Wakefield]

Zaide (Royer) is good. I'm not in the mood for the Goldberg Variations I can't bring myself to listen to it.

What it's perfectly useless in a conversation about a new interpretation of the Goldbergs, isn't it?

Anyway, your comment about Rondeau – as a sort of product of marketing – seems to imply a latent criticism about him, and ultimately about the people deceived by these commercial tricks. Personally, I don't care about this "paraphernalia."

I think he is a great harpsichordist, especially in French Baroque repertoire, and his ensemble "Nevermind" has recorded, at least, one essential and perfect disk (I want to mean "canonic"), devoted to the music by Jean-Baptiste Quentin.

His skills as a Bach performer, well, are an open debate. 

[Mandryka]

What it's perfectly useless in a conversation about a new interpretation of the Goldbergs, isn't it?

Anyway, your comment about Rondeau – as a sort of product of marketing – seems to imply a latent criticism about him, and ultimately about the people deceived by these commercial tricks. Personally, I don't care about this "paraphernalia."

I think he is a great harpsichordist, especially in French Baroque repertoire, and his ensemble "Nevermind" has recorded, at least, one essential and perfect disk (I want to mean "canonic"), devoted to the music by Jean-Baptiste Quentin.

His skills as a Bach performer, well, are an open debate. 

Yes I remember you liked the music and performances in that Nevermind CD.  I try to hear it soon.

[Mandryka]

What it's perfectly useless in a conversation about a new interpretation of the Goldbergs, isn't it?

Well he's playing these variations in London next week, I have a ticket now and so we shall see.

[Mandryka]

Rondeau's Goldberg Variations this morning in London:

1. The audience was good.
2. He was good with ornamentation
3. He wasn't stiff rhythmically.
4. He took all the repeats, occasionally with a bit of imagination, but often they sounded to me much like simple repetitions. At some point I caught myself wondering whether the musical idea justifies the length when it's played like this.
5. Wrong notes - too many IMO for a public paying professional concert in a central venue in a city of the stature of London
6. He gave the impression of being the shy and studious type
7. Rich sounding harpsichord, more resounding than subtle. I don't know what it was, I didn't buy a programme and the bloke next to me said it wasn't mentioned, but who knows?  He didn't make it sound beautiful or nuanced.
8. The way the voices were made to interrelate often produced busy textures which were a bit boring after a short time.
9. He was at his best in the opening aria (ornamentation) and variation 28 (fast and fun, he was clearly enjoying playing it, in French you'd say "ça sentait l'écurie")
10. A pretty conventional performance with nothing obviously new or interesting to say,  not particularly well executed. In short, a non-event.

[Wakefield]

Rondeau's Goldberg Variations this morning in London:

1. The audience was good.
2. He was good with ornamentation
3. He wasn't stiff rhythmically.
4. He took all the repeats, occasionally with a bit of imagination, but often they sounded to me much like simple repetitions. At some point I caught myself wondering whether the musical idea justifies the length when it's played like this.
5. Wrong notes - too many IMO for a public paying professional concert in a central venue in a city of the stature of London
6. He gave the impression of being the shy and studious type
7. Rich sounding harpsichord, more resounding than subtle. I don't know what it was, I didn't buy a programme and the bloke next to me said it wasn't mentioned, but who knows?  He didn't make it sound beautiful or nuanced.
8. The way the voices were made to interrelate often produced busy textures which were a bit boring after a short time.
9. He was at his best in the opening aria (ornamentation) and variation 28 (fast and fun, he was clearly enjoying playing it, in French you'd say "ça sentait l'écurie")
10. A pretty conventional performance with nothing obviously new or interesting to say,  not particularly well executed. In short, a non-event.

It sounds like a disappointing experience! Maybe he had a bad day...

Anyway, not everyone has thought like you about the same recital. This seems a pretty well informed review published on "The Boston Musical Intelligencer" two months ago: https://www.classical-scene.com/2018/04/23/rondeau-does-bwv-988/

[Mandryka]

Yes and don't forget he was playing a different instrument. Some of that review is about the music. When she does talk about what Rondeau made of the music,  there's some of what she says which applies to London, some not. For example this is probably fair

Keeping it all together, and holding our engaged attention for an hour and a half without intermission, was first of all his unfailing sense of rhythm. Notes were stretched or shrunk, suspenseful pauses intervened, the underlying pulse established for each movement always recovered its equilibrium.

However if she thinks this

Finally, Variation 30 is a Quodlibet that in lieu of a canon humorously combines two popular songs in free imitation with an ornamented version of the bass line.

she would have been pretty pissed off at the dour way Rondeau played it yesterday. And if she'd have caught the finger slips, she may have been a bit reluctant to say

Rondeau's sure pacing made the most dazzling displays of virtuosity seem entirely natural

By the way, sitting next to me was a girl in her 20s I'd say, a science postgrad who likes music, played piano till her late teens,  but had never heard the Goldbergs taken with repeats, or indeed heard them on a harpsichord. She said she only knows Gould's recording. It made me reflect again on how "iconic" Gould's recordings of it have become.

[Mandryka]

Elisabetta Guglielmin reveals hereself to be imaginative and poetic in her voice leading - Wolfgang Rübsam would approve I think. There's very little info that I can read on the web about her, apart from her Facebook page: she studied in Salzburg, she works in Turin . . . not much more info than that. She has released this and a Goldberg Variations..  Soft suite French harpsichord on the recording of Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, well enough recorded.


Here playing Froberger, rather cool headed, but again interesting voicing. 

https://youtube.com/v/HMDzd368JXc&feature=youtube

And yet, on revisiting this recording, I find the voicing much less imaginative than in (eg) Elizabeth Farr's Jacquet de la Guerre. And I find that Elisabetta Guglielmin is much less sensitive to the affects of the music than Farr, which seems a major problem. So this is one which doesn't seem to survive repeated listening very well.

[Mandryka]

She has a special interest in temperament

EMPERAMENTS
The three temperaments used in tuning the harpsichord for this recording provide an
overview of French temperaments during the Baroque era.
Chaumont (1695)
Chaumont described two ways to tune the harpsichord. The first of these corresponds
to the quarter-comma meantone temperament, while the second distributes the 'wolf
fifth' (the unusable interval of the meantone temperament) over two other fifths, making more of the sharp keys practicable. We used the first of these temperaments for
the works of D'Anglebert, since it was better suited to the keys of C major and G minor.

Rameau (1726)
In his Nouveau système de musique théorique, Rameau describes a temperament midway
between the meantone and the tempérament ordinare described by d'Alembert. We used
this temperament for Rameau's works. Four of its major thirds are pure, while the others are progressively wider, which can be used to expressive effect:

For it is worth noting that we receive different impressions from intervals according
to their alteration. For example, the major third, which naturally excites us to joy,
impresses us with feelings approaching fury when it is too wide; and the minor third,
which carries tenderness and softness, saddens us when it is too narrow. Able musicians know how to profit from these different effects of intervals and take expressive
advantage of the alteration which could be criticized.
J.-P. Rameau, Nouveau système de musique théorique (1726)

D'Alembert/Rousseau (1752/1767)
Only a major third remains pure in this temperament, the 'wolf' has completely disappeared, and all keys are practicable. The effect of this temperament, used here for the
suite by Forqueray, is quite pronounced in certain chords, emphasizing both the doleful
character of La Sylva and the fury of Jupiter, god of thunder and lightning.

First impressions are that this is rather expressively and thoughtfully played, slightly monochromatic harpsichord but I don't want to grumble. Strangely I can't see any info about the instrument.

Re Melisande herself, here's the CV

Mélisande McNabney performs keyboard music of all periods, on harpsichord, piano and
fortepiano. In August 2015 she received the third prize at the International Competition Musica Antiqua in Bruges, Belgium. Ms McNabney is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory,
where she studied harpsichord, continuo and fortepiano in the classes of Bob van Asperen
and Richard Egarr. She was granted her Doctorate at McGill University in May 2017, under
the guidance of Hank Knox and Tom Beghin, thanks to the support of the Joseph-Armand
Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program.
Very active on the concert scene, Mélisande McNabney has been invited as a soloist in series
such as Clavecin en concert or the Série Jacques-Dansereau. She is regularly invited to play
with ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Les Idées heureuses,
the Theatre of Early Music and Ensemble Caprice. She is a member of Pallade Musica and
Ensemble Les Songes, with whom she took part in numerous tours of Canada and the USA.
Ms McNabney has received scholarships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Banff
Centre, the FQRSC and the CALQ.

[Mandryka]

Picchi: Toccata; Pass' e mezzo
T. Merula: Toccata im 2. Ton; Capriccio cromatico
Frescobaldi: Cento partite sopra passacaglia; Toccata Nr. 12
Storace: Ballo della battaglia; Ciaccona
Rossi: Toccata Nr. 7
G. Strozzi: Toccata de Passacagli, e ciascheduno puo sonarsi a solo; Toccata Nr. 1

Marianna Henriksson is a student of Mitzi Meyerson in Berlin and she has studied with Francesco Cera. This is her debut recording where she plays 17th century Italian harpsichord music.

One of Marianna Henriksson's main sources of inspiration is Roland Barthes'  Fragments d'un discours amoureux. In particular she is impressed by Barthes' idea that one of the things that art - literature or music - can do is simulate love, in addition to analyse and  describe it.

Heriksson believes that these pieces of music are declarations of love, and that her job as performer is to present them as if being said in the first person by the lover. To stage them. The I who says "I love you", Herrickson herself, is at the heart of the performance.

She also adopts a view which she claims is derived from 17th century Italian ideas that music is visceral - that it can effect bodily fluids to arouse passions in the listener. Her aim, for example, in playing a Rossi toccata is to make the listener feel sick.

The result is passionate to the point of melodrama and histrionics even. Operatic.

Lovely modern Italian harpsichord, 1/4 comma meantone,  well recorded. One of the tracks, a Strozzi toccata, has been adapted by Hericksson and has been heavily processed by her sound engineer to provide the effect of a drone.

An important release by any stretch of the imagination - only Blandine Verlet has played harpsichord like this before. Judge for yourself

[flash=200,200]https://www.youtube.com/v/7y-KgFAIiJM[/flash]     [flash=200,200]https://www.youtube.com/v/dnjDqcOvpFo[/flash]

Tried this again today and thought it was totally uninteresting playing

Mark Edwards, assistant prof of harpsichord at Oberlin. Worth catching this CD, I think, with Aria Sebaldina and the Sweelinck Dorian frantasia, a transcription of the Bach chaconne, a Froberger Tombeau,  he plays sweetly  and energetically. I like it.

Can anyone find a detailed tracklist? Who wrote the famous passacaglia at the end? I know it well but it can't think who wrote it, very annoying.

And tried this again and thought it was rather enjoyable

[San Antone]

It would be helpful if you placed at the top of your posts the name of the harpsichordist, in bold, you are talking about.