Bach on the harpsichord, lute-harpsichord, clavichord

[Mandryka]

Comments on the Koopman have been mixed, some people don't seem to be so fond of this set. I did not have this on my list, mainly because I already had the incomplete 6 Novalis/Brilliant discs so more Koopman was not a priority. But as Curtis English/French were mentioned recently here, I searched again for several issues of these recordings and then for the volumes of the Bach 2000 edition because I remembered that the Ross and Wilson were also in that volume 9 (and they are much harder to find separately) and accidentally found the irrestible deal on the Koopman..

What's the problem supposed to be with those Koopman recordings? I like the Novalis too.

I'll be interested to know what you make of the Ross partitas (I'm not a fan)

[Jo498]

What is it about the suites outside the collections?

There are 3 suites in the abovementioned Bach 2000 box: 818a, 819, 821 (played by Ruzickova). The last one is spurious and if authentic supposedly very early. The first two in E flat major and a minor were apparently in a manuscript together with the French suite but not copied in the collection that then made up the so-called French suites. I found probable dates of early 1720 for the 819, for the 818 either similar or early (ca. 1705). I discovered that I had 818/19 already with Hill on a Haenssler vol. (Bach as teacher). They seem to be rather infrequently played and recorded. At least the 819 does not seem all that different or weaker than the French suites.
Hill plays a prelude 815a with 819(a) This prelude appears together with the French suite 815 in that manuscript. It would be nice to have the prelude with that suite in a recording (none of mine does but I bet some do).

[Mandryka]

What is it about the suites outside the collections?

There are 3 suites in the abovementioned Bach 2000 box: 818a, 819, 821 (played by Ruzickova). The last one is spurious and if authentic supposedly very early. The first two in E flat major and a minor were apparently in a manuscript together with the French suite but not copied in the collection that then made up the so-called French suites. I found probable dates of early 1720 for the 819, for the 818 either similar or early (ca. 1705). I discovered that I had 818/19 already with Hill on a Haenssler vol. (Bach as teacher). They seem to be rather infrequently played and recorded. At least the 819 does not seem all that different or weaker than the French suites.
Hill plays a prelude 815a with 819(a) This prelude appears together with the French suite 815 in that manuscript. It would be nice to have the prelude with that suite in a recording (none of mine does but I bet some do).

One I like is 823

[Mandryka]

I've been listening to Blandine Verlet play The French Suites.

She is (not surprisingly) at great pains to bring out the emotional life of the music, as if these suites are a study in music of all the ways we can feel love.

That seems perfectly appropriate to me, given that the French Suites are, at least in my head, a present for his new wife Anna Magdalena. Verlet pulls it off without ever making the music sound tense, and without ever ceasing to be intimate and domestic.

The harpsichord is by Anthony Sidley. It sounds perfect in this music,

There are a huge number of recordings of these suites. I think this is one of the ones which is really outstanding.

[milk]

I've been listening to Blandine Verlet play The French Suites.

She is (not surprisingly) at great pains to bring out the emotional life of the music, as if these suites are a study in music of all the ways we can feel love.

That seems perfectly appropriate to me, given that the French Suites are, at least in my head, a present for his new wife Anna Magdalena. Verlet pulls it off without ever making the music sound tense, and without ever ceasing to be intimate and domestic.

The harpsichord is by Anthony Sidley. It sounds perfect in this music,

There are a huge number of recordings of these suites. I think this is one of the ones which is really outstanding.

How about her partitas?

[Mandryka]

How about her partitas?

I put some comments on a couple of partitas from the Astrée set on a thread somewhere here just last week.

[Jo498]

Most of her Astrée recordings seem to be oop and rather expensive used. I remember that 4 years ago or so when I was more active on ebay there was some seeling huge amount of harpsichord and organ recordings (probably the collection of a professional or very serious collector) and lots of those were included but even on ebay used they were not bargains, so I didn't get any.
Likewise, of the Philips/Polygram solo recordings only the partitas seem to available on CD...

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Hi, I just found this forum accidentally last week.
I envy you, I have been looking for the CD for a reasonable price.
I used to listen these works at Youtube and Spotify, but they are removed now.

Agreed. This is one of my favourite GL records.

The CD I have is this one .

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Concerti transcriptions by Pieter Dirksen has been my favorite for years.

This set contains Leon Berben's WTC which is utterly forgettable.
And Joseph Paynes French suites which are so-so.
The rest of the content ranges from good to excellent.
Particularly fine are Pieter-Jan Belders Partitas, Clavierübung II and Menno van Delft's Art of Fugue.

[prémont]

Concerti transcriptions by Pieter Dirksen has been my favorite for years.

Mine too.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Mine too.

Full of elegance, cuteness and sexyness.

[bioluminescentsquid]

Full of elegance, cuteness and sexyness.

Don't forget his AoF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-g5mT8p00o

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Don't forget his AoF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-g5mT8p00o

I apologize for my ignorance, I did not know this version.
Wow, very unique, classy, and stylish!
Also I like the recording sound, which is not too friendly.
Thanks a lot.

[bioluminescentsquid]

I apologize for my ignorance, I did not know this version.
Wow, very unique, classy, and stylish!
Also I like the recording sound, which is not too friendly.
Thanks a lot.

He also has a Goldberg which I haven't really listened to, but plan on doing so.

Dirksen is in general an excellent musician - I've enjoyed his contributions to the Glossa and NM Sweelinck sets (BTW, the NM set is now on spotify, and I urge you to check it out), his Scheidemann, and his Bohm. His Louis Couperin organ works is on my shortlist.

His youtube channel is here. He regularly posts parts of his recordings and concerts.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpd9NEO9skgjQY3ptBTCYpg

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Just got this.
And to introduce another period keyboard instrument on this thread: it's played on a pedal harpsichord.
The pedal harpsichord used here consists actually of two harpsichords - one mounted on the other, the lower one played with pedals to create the bass line. Further details at the link. To quote JoshLilly: what a sound! 


click picture for clips

Yves Rechsteiner plays the Chromatic Fantasia, two of the Trio Sonatas and various transcriptions of Bach's music for violin solo. The instrument sounds impressive and is superbly recorded. When played at reasonable volume the effect can be as overwhelming as the sound of an organ and in fact does bear some similarities.

The playing is excellent, Rechsteiner is a very fine harpsichordist indeed. Would like to hear more of him.
He is the hands-on-and-not-to-linger type of player. Swift and clearly articulated, poetic if needed.
From the works played, I like the "added" effect of the pedal harpsichord best in the Trio Sonatas and the transcriptions. In the Chromatic Fantasia it does seem a touch overbearing sometimes.

This is a marvelous disc and recommended for anyone who is experienced in Bach harpsichord recordings and would like some alternative flavour. 

Q

Yes, I like the recording a lot. His Della Ciaja is pretty good too.

Based on a first listen yesterday this is a wonderful recording:

[asin]B004IZAEQS[/asin]

I ordered it based on a glowing review in a back issue of ARG and a fascination with pedal harpsichords.  I was a bit skeptical about the program, initially, since there were a few excerpted works in there (toccata without fugue, etc.), and about the interpretation, which I felt may be a bit clinical, but the disc is amazing.  The end result sounds like a brilliant organist attempting a take on a different instrument and loses none of the profoundness or passion of the works played on the organ, and certainly manages to maintain a great beauty, albeit, a different kind from what you get with an organ.  I heartily recommend it to harpsichord fanatics and to organ fanatics that don't mind a harpsichord.

Not sure, just like his WTC, the performance is colorless and lacking aesthetic dynamics

[Mandryka]

Don't forget his AoF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-g5mT8p00o

You can get the whole thing from his website, I like it a lot.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

He also has a Goldberg which I haven't really listened to, but plan on doing so.

Dirksen is in general an excellent musician - I've enjoyed his contributions to the Glossa and NM Sweelinck sets (BTW, the NM set is now on spotify, and I urge you to check it out), his Scheidemann, and his Bohm. His Louis Couperin organ works is on my shortlist.

His youtube channel is here. He regularly posts parts of his recordings and concerts.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpd9NEO9skgjQY3ptBTCYpg

Thank you for the info.
Totally I agree with you. Dirksen (and Belder) is a great artist.
His GV is classy and elegant though I am not a big fan of GV in general.
Plus, his Sonata for Viola and Harpsichord is great as well.

Thank you, Mandryka, too.

https://youtu.be/nqZWxlpQkJ4

[Mandryka]

Interesting comment here from Rubsam on his WTC

The Lautenwerk is the perfect instrument because of its overall warm, lilting color that does not rely on either manual or stop changes, allowing the intense individuality of each measure to be retained, while remaining interesting at all times--never predictable.

In my view this rich and inevitable music needs to be unpredictable. More to the point, each voice of the polyphony must be able to sing and interact to fully express Bach's complex linear architecture. Furthermore, even after repeated listening to the same track, listeners should perceive yet more beauty in matters of elegance, individuality, rhythmic complexity, ornamentation and overall color of interpretation by virtue of total independence of voices interacting

In Bach's music, polyphony creates the harmonic architecture and color, not the other way around.  This is clearly and often significantly misunderstood by even serious keyboard players worldwide. The complex interaction of singing voices that results in this recording is what I refer to as a "horizontal interpretation", as opposed to what seems to have become the run-of-the-mill finger-oriented vertical/chordal/harmonic/mechanical approach to performance, of what J.S. Bach clearly meant us to understand and communicate.  I hope that this recording helps to counter this misunderstanding and serve as a vehicle to assist and re-orient the cultural "inner ear" for Bach and for early music in general. Perhaps beyond that it may encourage further the art of elegant ornamentation especially, but not exclusively in pieces having repeat sections. This skill is not limited to just adding trills but in fact includes all kinds of flourishes, especially in sequence patterns and in many cadences of the Well Tempered Clavier.

Last but not least, I invite each listener to focus with eyes shut on each independent voice and discover how the music embraces the heart and mind.

Listening to his harpsichord AoF today, I was impressed by how the fugues give the impression of two or three lutes playing. I think it may well be the most interesting harpsichord AoF since Leonhardt (DHM). The tone of the harpsichord he uses is very warm, I've not checked to see whether it's the same as the one he used for WTC.  The WTC one has this interesting feature

It has only one manual, with one set of gut strings and two sets of jacks to pluck the same 8' set of gut strings in two different places: one, positioned farther from the nut, for producing a flutey, hooty sound and the other, closer to the nut, for a more nasal timbre. This present lautenwerk also has a brass 4' set of strings that are there purely for the sympathetic vibration, similar to the effect heard on a Viola d'Amore. That set of 4' brass strings adds the aliquot "halo" effect because it causes the rather dry sound of the gut strings to have much more of a singing quality. Thus one might be tempted to call this lautenwerk a "Lautenwerk d'Amore".

[prémont]

Yes, I like the recording a lot. His [Rechsteiner's] Della Ciaja is pretty good too.

Certainly, and so is Derung's. But I think Cremonesi brings out the phantastic elements (mostly in the toccata's) in the most interesting way.

Not sure, just like his WTC, the performance is colorless and lacking aesthetic dynamics

However Beausejour accumulates lots of energy in his playing on this pedalharpsichord CD, as he does in the recording of the passacaglia BWV582, which he has uploaded to YouTube (I do not care for his WTC).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yes I like Cremonesi's passionate version as well. The recording sound is a little rough, but I like it too.  I will listen Luc B more carefully.