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The Portuguese Fortepiano
Edward Parmentier plays Iberian music of the 18th century on the 1767 Antunes fortepiano in the Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. (WLBR 9401)

Edward Parmentierplays Iberian music of the 18th century on the 1767 Antunes fortepiano in the Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. Sonatas by Sebastian Albero, Antonio Soler, Domenico Scarlatti, Lodovico Giustini, Carlos Seixas, Baldassare Galuppi, João de Sousa Carvalho, and Lodovico Giustini.

The Antunes fortepiano is one of the oldest playable fortepianos in existence. Although it was built in Lisbon in 1767, the design is a precise copy of Cristofori's pioneering instruments from the beginning of the century. At midcentury, fortepianos were still a rare and exotic item, and nearly all published music was designated for "clavicembalo". Indeed the very term fortepiano was in the process of evolving from the phrase, "gravicembalo col piano e forte".

Edward Parmentier's approach to the instrument is not as a skilled performer on the fortepiano, rather it is as a highly skilled harpsichordist and clavichordist, much as performers of the time would have been. The sound is sensuous and revelatory.