Two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm

Excellent idea for a thread. I don't have much harpischord music, but do enjoy the few I own. I'm going to download your recommendation. George, I think, once recommended a WTC harspichord recording that I might track down, too (George?).

There is a great museum of early instruments in Oxford. They have a few really neat harpsichords, including one owned by Haydn (I think).

Great recording- for now my favorite Rameau on harpsichord.  I like A. Fuller and Skip Sempe as well but this recording is a landmark.

Thanks for this tip!

(My fav on piano is Alexandre Tharaud w/piano)

Ralf

The copulating skeletons were always to my liking. I consider the harpsichord as the Lean Cuisine of the keyboard family, sounding measured, articulate and honest.

Some of my favorite recordings are:

EJS,

The Esfahani's recording of Corelli (with Michala Petri) looks interesting:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/class...cembalo/hnum/6104200

T38.45,

Fuller's Rameau is excellent. The sound of Reference Recordings was way ahead of its time (1993), if we are talking about the same disc:

Personally, I like much better Hewitt's piano performance than Tharaud's Rameau.

Regards,

Haim

Downloaded the hi-res straight from the site. Enjoying it now.

Winky,

How much are they charging these days for a hi-res download, if I may ask? The introductory price of the double CD on Amazon is $40. I might get a used copy down the road, no rush since I already have three versions of the Pieces.

About the same. Not cheap.

I forgot to mention the outstanding disc of Alina Rotaru on the Spanish label Capre Diem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVkPb8OGeu8

A most stimulating and sensitive Art of Fugue from the greatest harpsichordist of the 20th century.

Plus below, Isolde Ahlgrimm's  Volume 1 box-set of 10 x LPs is great find and a precious addition to ones vinyl collection.

I generally find that piano replay often sounds better on CD

but harpsichord replays so much nicer on vinyl : )

Debs

And the other greatest harpsichordist of the 20th century: 

Leonhardt's last recordings were beautifully recorded by Alpha, and includes the Byrd disc Haim listed above. On some of these recordings, Leonhardt plays a claviorganum, a harpsichord with an organ attached.

EJ

And another famous player: Pierre Hantaï. He's recorded Bach before (book I of the Well-Tempered, and the Goldbergs, both of which I don't think are absolutely top tier), but this record is his best yet IMO. 

EJ

Finally, Handel Suites on the harpsichord, performed expertly by Sophie Yates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-luWk12uS94

EJ, thanks for the old recommendation. Took me a while to acquire the disc.

Masaaki Suzuki is known as the conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan, however he's also a quite excellent harpsichordist. An especially nice recording is the one he did with his son, playing Bach's concertos for two harpsichords. Excellent sound quality, too.

Cheers

EJ

Haïm, I'm afraid this hasn't come from me! 

EJ

I am posting this for nostalgic reasons.  I don't know really for sure but in my mind this is my first Bach Harpsichord CD in 1988 (although I am sure I have a few LP's somewhere).  With new found inspiration, I am listening to this tonight for the first time in probably 25 years. 

Edit: Apparently my original album cover of this didn't work and I couldn't find the cover elsewhere.  It is Maggie Cole and this disc 2 only (and not the added Goldbergs as this later 2 CD)

Häkkinen recently recorded Bach's keyboard concertos on harpsichord, in irresistibly virtuosic, rhythmic  performances with equal roles for soloist and the fabulous Helsinki Baroque. Behind the glossy exterior, there is an orthodox seriousness which is too often forgotten as an essential ingredient to getting Bach right (IMO).

EJ

And here is Landowska'a famous Playel being put through its gargantuan paces in real performances by a proper harpsichordist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQppWyIfOlk

ATB from George

And this is what a proper harpsichord sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...index=16&list=WL

ATB from George

George, although I think the Handel is pretty OK, these videos are hardly likely to win any crowds, and seem to confirm the prejudice that classical music in general, and harpsichord music in particular, is elitist, stiff and dusty. As are camera(wo)men capturing them, apparently.

How about this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NYqiKm3gng

Cheers,

EJ

Dea EJ,

Nearly seven minutes of irrelevant chatter including for me the ultimate turn-off words "et cetera" when used to discuss something as significant as great music.

I admire Pierre Hanntaii very much. I personally prefer no video on youtube of music, but it is easy to achieve. Just turn off the screen.

I prefer Helmut Walcha [on the harpsichord] to Hantaii in the Goldbergs, and certainly much more in the 48 Preludes and Fugues.

What I was trying to show with my two posts of Landowskas infamous Playel harpsichord, and Pavao Masic playing a super instrument after Taskin is the sure wonderful melding of the tone and timbre of a great instrument in a wonderful and swaggering big piece! That Masic is himself a lovely player was almost not the point, though hopefully this parish church organist from Zagreb will become more famous through exposure via youtube in these days when recording contracts are much scarcer in classic music than decades ago.

I am sure that you are right that the music itself will never have much appeal to those reared on One Direction and Marron Five, I would bet that it will still be heard long after any contemporary pop group is anything other than dead and forgotten.

On elitism, the elitist is mostly happy to accept the status quo, and not attempt to bring this great music before people who might otherwise never find it! Keep it for the elite of music appreciators if you like!

I am am anti-elitist "elitist!" I want the great music to become ever more popular to the point where it exceeds the popularity of the ephemeral rubbish that makes fortunes for people, but has no long term or serious significance beyond the financial.

You could call me an evangelist for great music!

ATB from George

Don't get me wrong, George - Sempé is a great player, although of course with this instrument that hardly matters, but these production values are just horrid. At least Hantai and his cameraman inject some life into the video.

EJ

Rameau's other body of works for harpsichord, his trio sonatas. Sometimes performed with additional instruments, and, in a transcription by a later composer, for ensemble without harpsichord. But the music works best - IMO - in the setting as played by Trevor Pinnock, Rachel Podger and Jonathan Manson.

EJ

Rachel Podger!

Now you are talking.

I am fortunate enough to have been to two of her recitals in smallish halls!

Both times all Bach programmes ...

ATB from George

A favourite composer of J.S. Bach's, the harpsichord oeuvre of Georg Böhm (1661-1733), dating most probably from the last years of the 17th century, remains little known and this is the first complete recording of his suites. Mitzi Meyerson's harpsichord playing sounds like a deep sea of nuances full of varying colors and dynamics.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzzFwqMI7g0