Bach on the harpsichord, lute-harpsichord, clavichord

[milk]

Or Pokemons

I don't know what to say. Wow! That's awesome/hilarious!

[Mandryka]

I had not heard of Rebecca Pechefsky before tonight but I'm liking this recording. Coming off listening to Frisch and Suzuki recently, whom I both love, I find 
her more melancholy and moody. She has a way with rubato/phrasing - nothing radical but very musical. Her tempos are perhaps on the slower side. Anyone have any thoughts on Rebecca Pechefsky? I feel a kind of prejudice when it comes to New Yorkers - maybe since the great Bach performers have been coming from oceans away - but she studied with the likes of Kenneth Gilbert and Colin Tilney.   

I feel the opposite, in that I feel that the great strength and originality of Frisch in Book 2, is that she finds a sort of tender melancholy, and that she plays in a way which eschews thrilling virtuosity.

You know how there was a tradition of playing Brahms' late piano music with a feeling of nostalgia, well I think there's a bit of that in Frisch's late Bach.

[milk]

I feel the opposite, in that I feel that the great strength and originality of Frisch in Book 2, is that she finds a sort of tender melancholy, and that she plays in a way which eschews thrilling virtuosity.

You know how there was a tradition of playing Brahms' late piano music with a feeling of nostalgia, well I think there's a bit of that in Frisch's late Bach.

I will listen again today. I'd like to compare her to Suzuki. What Pokémon does Suzuki get?

[milk]

Just seeing this and mention of Elizabeth Farr made me think of her Byrd recording, which was produced by Rubsam. Farr rolls chords to mark upbeats in Byrd. It's quite a bold experiment.

I don't know how she is in Bach but the Byrd is intriguing and the instrument sounds great.

[JBS]

I don't know how she is in Bach but the Byrd is intriguing and the instrument sounds great.

Re Farr
I thought her Lautenwork recording was a bit of a bore, but her recording of the concertos for solo clavier was first class.

[Mandryka]

I don't know how she is in Bach but the Byrd is intriguing and the instrument sounds great.

I haven't heard the Bach. Here are my notes on the Byrd from about eighteen months ago

The recording by Elizabeth Farr caused a certain amount of consternation when it was released because it uses a style of playing which people sometimes call "digital" (as opposed to chordal.) It involves articulating each voice independently, and hence making music which expresses a rich web of sometimes contrasting emotions, and which manifests complex textures and rhythms. This style of interpretation has recently become slightly more familiar because Wolfgang Rubsam, who produced Elizabeth Farr's CD, uses it in his lautenwerk Bach, Pachelbel and Bohm recordings, and the harpsichord factor Keith Hill (who made two of the instruments Elizabeth Farr uses) has written a paper in its advocacy. One gets the impression that there's an avant garde in baroque and renaissance keyboard playing, with Hill, Rubsam and Farr at the vanguard.

I have to say that I like the digital approach and I find these performances of the Lady Nevells Booke Pavans and Galliards stimulating, especially when she uses lautenwerk. Elizabeth Farr often spreads chords as, I guess, a strategy for avoiding pounding the pulse out. How accurate a method of interpretation this is I cannot say, but I think it is not ineffective. On lute harpsichord -- another beautiful instrument made by Hill -- she sounds every bit like Wolfgang Rubsam avant la lettre.

Her notes reveal that she's sensitive to the expressive possibilities of the cycle and my feeling is that what she does, at that level, is exceptional.

At the time I listened to all the recordings of the complete Pavan and Galliard cycle in My Lady Nevells Book and I thought that both Farr and Hogwood on harpsichord were particularly successful. 

Rubsam in a conversation seemed to understand why I thought that Farr was playing digitally, but I got the feeling that he thought that she wasn't extreme enough! He was involved in the Byrd recording in a sound engineering capacity.

[milk]

First time listening to Parmentier. I find him intimate and rather serious. Maybe even dark? I never know if it's just my mood. He connects musical lines in an interesting way that makes them poetic. There's a lot to love.

[milk]

Parmentier's partitas are magnificent. He doesn't use only use hesitations but a lot of different techniques I think - all working naturally together to create drama and intensity.

[milk]

This is something very interesting and nothing like the pedal harpsichord recording from Biggs. There's a lot more variety in her playing and I think it doesn't sound dated like Biggs does. I think Rosalinde Haas brings out the voices in this and she reflects more mystery. The only problem is that she seems to make mistakes here and there and that caused me to ultimately turn this off. Maybe it's live or maybe my brain is burping. *She uses a "Blanchet Harpsichord," which I'd never heard of. 


I don't completely know what's going on here. It's a mix up of keyboard instruments, harpsichord and organ, and very interesting sounds. Actually I think she's playing on her home instruments. What's a Klais organ and does it really fit in one's house? This is excerpt of Musical Offering and I'm not hearing any blemishes in her very interesting performances. 

[Mandryka]

Very left field. There are lots of recordings using Blanchet instruments (eg Matax Moersch D'anglebert, Dantone WTC), they all sound less rough than Haas' instrument.

[prémont]

I don't completely know what's going on here. It's a mix up of keyboard instruments, harpsichord and organ, and very interesting sounds. Actually I think she's playing on her home instruments. What's a Klais organ and does it really fit in one's house? This is excerpt of Musical Offering and I'm not hearing any blemishes in her very interesting performances.

As far as I recall, Klais (a German organ builder) built an organ for her home.

[milk]

Has anyone delved into Edith Picht-Axenfeld? She's recorded a lot of Bach.

[vers la flamme]

Or Pokemons

Never would have pegged you for a Pokemon guy. 

[prémont]

Has anyone delved into Edith Picht-Axenfeld? She's recorded a lot of Bach.

I have heard very little of her Bach. I recall a relatively oldfashioned style of little interest - imagine a smoother variety of Zuzana Růžičková.

[vers la flamme]

Thoughts on Růžičková...? She's recorded just about everything, and seems to have lived quite the life. What kind of instrument was she playing?

[prémont]

Thoughts on Růžičková...? She's recorded just about everything, and seems to have lived quite the life. What kind of instrument was she playing?

She played different instruments in this set, most of them revival harpsichords. My short description of the set is oldfashioned and pedestrian. An unimaginative variety of Landowska.

[vers la flamme]

She played different instruments in this set, most of them revival harpsichords. My short description of the set is oldfashioned and pedestrian. An unimaginative variety of Landowska.

Do you hate all of the "old-fashioned" harpsichordists in equal measure, or do I just keep picking your least favorites of them to ask about? 

[prémont]

Do you hate all of the "old-fashioned" harpsichordists in equal measure, or do I just keep picking your least favorites of them to ask about? 

"Hate" is too strong a word. I just find Růžičková dull. There are several much more interesting old-fashioned recordings of Bach's  keyboard music on big revival harpsichords.

To mention a few:

Helmut Walcha (EMI/Warner 1958 -1962)
Ralph Kirkpatrick (Archiv 1950es - early 1960es)
Isolde Ahlgrimm (Philips 1950es) particularly the WTC and AoF
Martin Galling (Vox 1960es) a mixed pleasure, but most often far more imaginative than Růžičková

[MusicTurner]

Has anyone delved into Edith Picht-Axenfeld? She's recorded a lot of Bach.

I once had a Schumann piano CD and found it unusually lifeless. Just my opinion.
https://www.discogs.com/Robert-Schumann-Edith-Picht-Axenfeld-3-Gro%C3%9Fe-Sonate-Op-14/release/8972817

[Mandryka]

Here's a concert by Władysław Kłosiewicz on a Playel harpsichord. Someone once told me that there's still a market for these things, they sell.

https://www.youtube.com/v/0OEV_06qW0I&ab_channel=NarolEnterprise

And here's Skip Sempe on Landowska's harpsichord, playing it and talking about the Landowska legacy and about performance practice. The talking much more interesting than the playing for me - starts at 21.15 or thereabouts.

https://www.youtube.com/v/tQppWyIfOlk&ab_channel=LibraryofCongress