Bach on the harpsichord, lute-harpsichord, clavichord

[kishnevi]

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2663.0.html

If you the YouTube page's link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9-LFQuGNc, the stuff that goes between the tags should be http://www.youtube.com/v/Qs9-LFQuGNc. (The quote mode of this post should make it clear.)

Thank you.  Hopefully I'll remember that the next time the embedding urge comes over me.

[prémont]

Has anyone any comments about Lars Ulrik Mortensen's Goldbergs, which I'd like to hear just because I've been enjoying his Buxtehude solo records?

Colourful, inventive within well judged stylistic limits.

[PaulSC]

Maybe Frisch errs on the side of elegance and lightness, I don't know. It's entertaining as a recording though. Has anyone any comments about Lars Ulrik Mortensen's Goldbergs, which I'd like to hear just because I've been enjoying his Buxtehude solo records?

As premont has already noted, it's a very colorful performance. I am a sucker for the harpsichord's lute or buff stop, and it is used is generously in Mortensen's recording.

[Mandryka]

OK -- that's great. Thanks for responding. I'll get a copy.

I've just bought a ticket to hear Skip Sempe play in Paris next month -- French music as part of a big baroque festival there. I think he's very good on record in French music -- some of the F Couperin, including the Gamba duos, but also some of the solo pieces, are very characterfully played.   Paris is more lively  for baroque music than London I think. Has anyone tried his Rameau transcriptions CD with Hantai?

I've also started to listen to Mortensen playing Handel Op 3 concertos/

[Mandryka]

This quodlibet tune is I think the same as Buxtehude uses in the big variations set Buxwv 250 -- of which there is a very amazing recording by Glen Wilson.

[North Star]

This quodlibet tune is I think the same as Buxtehude uses in the big variations set Buxwv 250 -- of which there is a very amazing recording by Glen Wilson.

I had no idea of this previously, but Wikipedia is informative:

The Kraut und Rüben theme, under the title of La Capricciosa, had previously been used by Dietrich Buxtehude for his thirty-two partite in G major, BuxWV 250.[12]

[jlaurson]

This quodlibet tune is I think the same as Buxtehude uses in the big variations set Buxwv 250 -- of which there is a very amazing recording by Glen Wilson.

so, among several pieces, in the Bergamasca in which Frescobaldi varies the "Bergamasca melody" that is at the base of Bach's quodlibet of "Kraut und Rüben / haben mich vertrieben" and "Ich bin so lang nicht bey dir g'west" (Goldberg Variations) and where the intertwined lines of the songs are sung before the Frescobaldi variations are played on the organ. Just one of many charming touches on this wonderful set.

...from: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/12/grab-it-while-you-can-frescobaldis.html

[Wakefield]

Maybe Frisch errs on the side of elegance and lightness, I don't know. It's entertaining as a recording though. Has anyone any comments about Lars Ulrik Mortensen's Goldbergs, which I'd like to hear just because I've been enjoying his Buxtehude solo records?

Not the Goldbergs, but I think you would love this recording by her:

[asin]B002XG8LCS[/asin]

It's a repertory which allows more freedom and Frisch takes the chance. Bach mixed with some of his more admirable forerunners. 

[prémont]

It's a repertory which allows more freedom ..

Do you not think it asks for more freedom ?
Allows seems so restricted in comparison.

[prémont]

The AoF is interesting because of the internal tempi changes I think [in Vartolo´s recording]. Suddenly the pieces have  codas, preludes, take the form of a triptych, an arch.

I find Vartolo rather fuzzy, loosing the sight of the great lines in this monumental work.
His pupil Messori (Brilliant) has got a more integrated view upon the work and still has retained much of Vartolo´s muical weightiness.
BTW in a short time the next volume of Messori´s Bach series, a CD with Great organ preludes and fugues ,will appear on Brilliant.

[Mandryka]

Not the Goldbergs, but I think you would love this recording by her:

[asin]B002XG8LCS[/asin]

It's a repertory which allows more freedom and Frisch takes the chance. Bach mixed with some of his more admirable forerunners. 

It's nice the way she takes the allemande in the Buxtehude suite so slowly, I don't think it cloys too much to play it like that. But truth is I like Koopman's fun energetic way more even though what he does finishes up by making the whole suite a bit homogeneous. Both Frisch and Koopman risk making the allemande fall apart for different reasons, but I don't think either of them do.

[milk]

I just noticed this new recording:

[milk]

Just a few words about this new Koopman:
My first impression of the Koopman is that it seems a bit intellectual to me. His ornamentation is interesting, even exciting sometimes, but it feels like he loses momentum and the sense of being "in the moment." He does play a mighty sweet sounding instrument. Sometimes he "wows" me. I end up going back and forth between recordings these days. I can't help it. I still find Suzuki to be wonderful. The music seems to flow right out of him. Koopman's approach with regard to ornamentation seems akin to Suzuki - although Koopman lacks the continual sense of spontaneity and focus on beauty. I don't hear this so called "Protestantism" in Suzuki's harpsichord playing. Mortensen is a great contrast. He creates a totally different atmosphere. "Atmosphere" seems like the right word to describe Mortensen. I love the Mortensen. I can see why Ross has his fans. Ross is kind of "no nonsense" - but he conveys an understanding of the music. He's respectable in a good way. Leonhardt is magic and always leaves me wanting more. You just can't ever get enough of Leonhardt! How does he say so much without seeming to do that much? It's like magic! Leonhardt is exciting when he needs to be, mournful when it's called for, etc. I've never gotten into the Rousset or Pinnock and although I have Alard, I've not given him a chance. Should I try harder with these three? I think the best partitas are delivered by Leonhardt, Suzuki and Mortensen.

[milk]

One more thing: Mortensen's Goldberg Variations and French Suites sound pretty great just from the samples. I'm extremely tempted. With so much praise for Mortensen on this forum, I wonder why I don't see anything about these two recordings. I can't find much about them anywhere. Does anyone have an opinion? Now I will leave off!

[Mandryka]

One more thing: Mortensen's Goldberg Variations and French Suites sound pretty great just from the samples. I'm extremely tempted. With so much praise for Mortensen on this forum, I wonder why I don't see anything about these two recordings. I can't find much about them anywhere. Does anyone have an opinion? Now I will leave off!

In the Goldbergs, everything is very very beautiful and sane and calm and often rather cheerful, like the polar opposite of Hantai 2. Normally I'd find that a problem, I'd get bored,  but he's doing something which make me enjoy listening, though I'm not quite sure what. In a way Mortensen reminds me of Rubinstein, because of his uncomplicated straightforward non-neurotic style of making music.

I've been enjoying Mortensen's Handel Op 3

[milk]

In the Goldbergs, everything is very very beautiful and sane and calm and often rather cheerful, like the polar opposite of Hantai 2. Normally I'd find that a problem, I'd get bored,  but he's doing something which make me enjoy listening, though I'm not quite sure what. In a way Mortensen reminds me of Rubinstein, because of his uncomplicated straightforward non-neurotic style of making music.

Yeah, it's sunny Bach, spring Bach. It was perfect for today's jog: a 60-degree winter day in Osaka. Well, there's a lot of love in Mortensen's  Goldberg. It's so different than the one I listened to last week: Vartolo! Speaking of which: Do you think Vartolo's approach is more suited to the AOF (which I also spent time with last week)? As for Mortensen, I also never felt bored. He loves the music and expresses this. His joy is infectious! I hear a lot of laughter in it. Sometimes I even imagined myself to be in a beer hall (that is from my imagination because I don't know what a beer hall is).

[Coopmv]

In the Goldbergs, everything is very very beautiful and sane and calm and often rather cheerful, like the polar opposite of Hantai 2. Normally I'd find that a problem, I'd get bored,  but he's doing something which make me enjoy listening, though I'm not quite sure what. In a way Mortensen reminds me of Rubinstein, because of his uncomplicated straightforward non-neurotic style of making music.

I've been enjoying Mortensen's Handel Op 3

I really do not have much exposure to Mortensen yet, though I have the following DVD that is still in shrinkwrap for over a year ...

I already have about a half dozen versions of these works.

[Que]

I just noticed this new recording:


Just a few words about this new Koopman:
My first impression of the Koopman is that it seems a bit intellectual to me. His ornamentation is interesting, even exciting sometimes, but it feels like he loses momentum and the sense of being "in the moment." He does play a mighty sweet sounding instrument. Sometimes he "wows" me. I end up going back and forth between recordings these days. I can't help it. I still find Suzuki to be wonderful. The music seems to flow right out of him. Koopman's approach with regard to ornamentation seems akin to Suzuki - although Koopman lacks the continual sense of spontaneity and focus on beauty. I don't hear this so called "Protestantism" in Suzuki's harpsichord playing. Mortensen is a great contrast. He creates a totally different atmosphere. "Atmosphere" seems like the right word to describe Mortensen. I love the Mortensen. I can see why Ross has his fans. Ross is kind of "no nonsense" - but he conveys an understanding of the music. He's respectable in a good way. Leonhardt is magic and always leaves me wanting more. You just can't ever get enough of Leonhardt! How does he say so much without seeming to do that much? It's like magic! Leonhardt is exciting when he needs to be, mournful when it's called for, etc. I've never gotten into the Rousset or Pinnock and although I have Alard, I've not given him a chance. Should I try harder with these three? I think the best partitas are delivered by Leonhardt, Suzuki and Mortensen.

This morning I'm listening through the samples on all music, as I do more often these days. And I have to say that, despite the fact that I've never been a fan of Koopman on the harpsichord - in sharp contrast to my admiration of his Bach on the organ - this new recording is not bad at all. Definitely different and interesting though he still suffers from micro-managing and ever shifting tempi - which creates a certain "nervosity". But in comparison to before I detect more calm and breath in the interpretation.

I'm a fan of Rousset on this and have recently been quite taken with Pieter-Jan Belder's interpretation (1999, Brilliant Classics)

Q

[Geo Dude]

Any thoughts on Egarr's English Suites?

[kishnevi]

Any thoughts on Egarr's English Suites?

Yes, but they're totally incoherent.

I gave it a first listen a couple of days ago, and nothing about it stood out, positive or negative.  Playing style seems comparable to his WTC, but there's no single characteristic I could point to that would apply to this performance.