Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site teddy.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!amd!vecpyr!lll-crg!seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!teddy!rdp 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