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From: rdp@teddy.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Harpsichord music and records
Message-ID: <1159@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 14:25:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: teddy.1159
Posted: Fri Aug 16 14:25:09 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 04:06:14 EDT
Reply-To: rdp@teddy.UUCP (Richard D. Pierce)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 77

Note:

This message is in response to mail I received from Eugene Fiume in
reference to remarks I made about Couperin, et al. Mail has failed me,
so I post, hoping he's out there, and, besides, somebody else might
be interested in this.

His letter:
> 
> I share your harpsichord/Couperin lunacy.  A question for you:
> like my instrument, the classical guitar, I find that harpsichord albums
> tend to be very poorly recorded.  Is there some technical reason for this,
> or am I just looking at the wrong recordings?  CD technology has done
> wonders for guitar, because so much of the individual character of an
> instrument is covered up in record noise, etc.  Is the same true of
> harpsichord recordings?
> 
> Cheers
>        Eugene Fiume

And I reply:

I find that the problems behind most recordings of harpsichord music fall
into one or more of the following categories:

    1.	Bad performances on bad or otherwise inapropriate instruments. This
	includes the likes of Wanda Landowska on the dreaded Pleyel, 
	Ruzikova (sp?), Valenti, etc. and the whole genre of mid-European
	harpsichordists nutured in the Landowska tradition (this is to
	some equal to heresy, of course). 

    2.	Purely amatuerish recording techniques. This includes miking far
	to close (the harpsichord soundboard seems to have a far more
	locallized radiation pattern that is note dependent than a piano,
	possibly because of its far thinner and mor flexible soundboard
	and a greater participtaion on the part of the whole case.), overly
	reverberent environments, etc. etc.

    3.	Bad pressings.

Of the above, only #3 is helped by CD's. I have quite a large collection of
Baroque keyboard music at home, quite a few of which were done on instruments
that I have played or have heard. 

As far as the Couperin Pieces de Clavecin are concerned, by far the best
performance and recording is the series released by Kenneth Gilbert on
Harmonia Mundi. The performances are wonderful, unassuming, lyrical, 
charming, etc., and the instruments used include those by Frank Hubbard,
and I cannot fault the recordings at all. They are extremely faithful to
the instrument (of which I have a copy in my house), and they are very
quiet. THese performances were available on MHS a few years ago but
suffered from off-centered pressing. It is worth the search for the
HM's.

Recordings of Bach harpsichord pieces are somewhat harder to find, strangely
enough. Most of what is available is played by Gustav Leonhardt and the like.
I find that the instruments they chose to be somewhat drier and less full
than the French tradition (Leonhardt uses a Dulken (Flemish) copy, I think)
There is a very good recording of the 6 harpsichord suites available from
the Smithsonian Institute, played by (I think, but could be wrong) Fenner
Douglas. 

I have yet to find a satisfying Scarlatti set, but local artist (Mark Kroll,
etc.) have made excellent recordings of selected pieces on labels such as
Titanic, AFKA, and so forth.

As a complete aside, the most fun-packed harpsichord record I have is
one recorded by Donald Angle on AFKA, named "New Angle on Harpsichord". It
has an absolutely wonderful performance of Earl Flatt's (of Flatt and Scrugg
fame) "Foggy Mountain Breakdown". As a Harpsichord purist, I can't 
recommend it enough.

Anyone interested in Baroque organ music?

Regards

Dick Pierce