Giovanni Benedetto Platti:
SONATAS PER IL CLAVICEMBALO
Elaine Funaro, harpsichord (David Jencks, after German originals) and fortepiano (David Sutherland, after Cristofori, Florence, 1726)
Giovanni Benedetto Platti:
|
|
"The sonatas of Giovanni Benedetto Platti presented on this recording recommend themselves by their attractiveness and warmth of melody, the easy balance and antrualness of their design and their wide-ranging variety of manners and moods. They are also interesting because today... we can easily hear that their composer seems at times to inhabit the world of Corelli and Handel, but at other times that of Haydn and Mozart, all of whose lifespans overlapped Platti's by at least a few years."
So writes David Sutherland, the builder of the marvelous instrument featured on this recording, a copy of the latest surviving instrument of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the fortepiano. Sutherland's essay is impressive and informative, giving a particularly keen sense of the stylistic struggle that was launched by the appearance of the new instrument and its characteristic pallette of sounds and colors. Sutherland's instrument is impressive as well in the way that it simultaneously evokes the harpsichord, whose name it still bore, and the modern piano, whose potentialities it embodied.
While all this is all very learned and technical, Elaine Funaro's performance makes us forget that we are experiencing a musicological document and launches us into unqualified delight and enjoyment of this nearly forgotten music. Her playing is playful, witty, warm and lovely.
Seven of Platti's sonatas are presented; four are performed on fortepiano, three on harpsichord. Ms Funaro has chosen a harpsichord by David Jencks, modelled on German instruments of the early 18th century, a far less colored and more clear platform for these transitional pieces.
The fortepiano is the property of the Schubert
Club in St Paul MN, where they have a museum of musical instruments, and
where the instrument resides. The Schubert Club provides support for this
project.
|
17th CENTURY GERMAN HARPSICHORD
MUSIC |
 |
Recorded Manchester, Michigan. Peter Nothnagle, engineer; Joseph Spencer,
producer DDD 69'29" $15.98
NOW DIRECT FROM THE MUSICAL OFFERING.
see first review
Johann Kaspar Kerll: Two Toccatas
Melchior Schildt: Paduana Lachrymae (after John Dowland)
Heinrich Scheidemann: Praeambulum - Galliardas - Jesu wollst uns
weisen
Matthias Weckmann: Toccata in D - Canzon - Suite in C minor
Johann Krieger: Fuga
Dieterich Buxtehude: Toccata in G minor - Suite in F - Variations on
Rofilis
Georg Böhm: Suite in D - Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ
Harpsichord by Keith Hill, Manchester, Michigan, after Zell, Hamburg.
The seventeenth-century Stylus phantasticus was the equivalent of a no-holds-barred jam session- whatever works, do it! Edward Parmentier follows that mandate, playing one of Keith Hill's most exotic instruments, with a highly spiced meantone tuning applied. The result is the harpsichord equivalent of Thai food: sweet, hot and spicy, aromatic, intensely interesting, always surprising, and real good.
The composers represented bridge a century-wide gap between two poles: the composers Jan Sweelinck, "the father of Hamburg organists", and Samuel Scheidt, who discarded the old German organ tablature in favor of 'modern' staff notation, both working around Ca. 1600; and the young Johann Sebastian Bach, who would singlehandedly create the modern virtuoso repertoire. Many of the composers' names are unfamiliar; much of their music is not available in print, let alone on recording.
Many of these pieces have not been recorded before, especially on harpsichord. Much of this music is viewed as suitable for any keyboard instrument of the time; comparing these with good recordings of the same pieces on organs of the period, I am impressed with their suitability for the harpsichord, and with Parmentier's conspicuous talent for finding their "harpsichord voice." Taken together, the seven composers represented form a chain of first-hand acquaintance and professional relationship stretching from Sweelinck and Scheidt to Bach.
If all that sounds like learned musicological blather, fear not: the music is the message, and the message is vitality and excitement and color. This is an extremely enjoyable CD that needs no historical justification, but can be marvelled at and savored, without apparent limit. It is a unique document that will not soon be matched.
 |
THE SPLENDOR OF THE HARPSICHORD |
J. S. Bach: Sonata in D minor BWV 964, after Sonata in A minor BWV 1003
for solo violin. (arrangement J. S. Bach)
- Allegro from Sonata in G for violin & hprscd, BWV 1019
- Arioso from Capriccio on the Departure... BWV 992
Buxtehude: Toccata in G BuxWV 165
Francois Couperin: Five pieces from Ordre VII in B flat Major.
Frescobaldi: Toccata X, Bk 1; Canzona IV, Bk 2.
Scarlatti: Sonata in E flat, K.192
Dowland: Forlorn Hope Fancy; Can she excuse my wrongs?
Byrd: Go from my Window
Froberger: Suite XX in D
Marin Marais: "L'Americaine" from Bk IV, 1717
Forqueray: La Montigni, from Suite IV in C minor.
Handel: Fugue in B flat Major
Harpsichords by Joop Klinkhamer, Amsterdam:
Anon. French/German double late 17th century
Anon. Italian single manual, c. 1750
Flemish double, Ruckers/Goujon? 1632/1745
Anon. Thuringian single manual n.d.
German harpsichord after Christian Vater 1738
At the Berkeley Festival 1996 Edward Parmentier demonstrated two new harpsichords of Klinkhamer, a mini recital that was extremely successful and gratifying for all present. In the autumn Parmentier travelled to Holland to make a 'sampler' CD of Klinkhamer CDs, on the understanding that if the results were good, said CD would appear on Wildboar, where he has many other recordings. This CD is the result of that collaboration.
Parmentier's program is wide-ranging, in order to showcase the many varied voices of Klinkhamer's colorful instruments. In the process, his command of the broad range of demands of virtuoso music spanning more than a century is brought to evidence.
Especially welcome is the reading of Bach's transcription of the A minor violin sonata, seldom performed and rarely recorded. Parmentier shows the commanding mastery required to meet the great composer on his own terms. Several other transcriptions are from other non-keyboard media: Jean-Baptiste Forqueray's transcriptions of his father's demanding music for viola da gamba are well known to harpsichordists. Less familiar are settings of lute music by John Dowland, either by his brother Robert or by another, now unnamed scribe; and unique is Parmentier's own transcription of a movement from Marin Marais' "Suitte d'un Gout Etranger", again for gamba.
 |
Music of the Bauyn Manuscript |
As the child-king Louis XIV approached the age of thirteen, French nobility jostled for position at the new court. Louis was an avid and accomplished dancer, and player of the harpsichord, an instrument introduced to the French court by Chambonniéres, Louis' teacher. Soon a veritable swarm of harpsichordists surrounded the court, vying with one another for status in the royal salon, and creating an extraordinary new style of music that was to chart the course for keyboard instruments through the following century, until the ascendancy of the piano in the classical era.
Byron Schenkman's solo recital at the 1997 Boston Early Music Festival
stunned its audience for its depth, virtuosity, and emotive power. Playing
a new copy of the Colmar Ruckers harpsichord by Kevin Fryer of San Francisco,
the event quickly became one of the most talked-about concerts of a very
busy week. Brian Clark, writing in "Early Music Review" (UK) sings the
praises of Byron Schenkman:
"Byron Schenkmann gave a stunning solo recital [in which he] played
Handel, D'Anglebert and Rameau, each sounding as if he made it up as he
went along, and each sounding completely different from the others. The
entire hour was played from memory, and every phrase, every note almost,
had something to say. Even Handel's seemingly inevitable keyboard music
sounded utterly original and spontaneous. If he and his colleagues in La
Luna gave the performances of the week, he was my performer of the festival."
We are extremely proud and pleased to announce that Byron Schenkman has been awarded first prize in the Bodky International Competition at the Boston Early Music Festival, America's most prestigious award for young musicians in the field of early music. The award will be presented at the Festival this June.
|
Andrea Falconieri: Canzone, Sinfonie, Fantasie, & Dances, Naples 1650 |
 |
For centuries Italy was divided into a maze of small duchies and armed states that were continually at war with one another, or with the Kingdom of Naples in the south, owned by Spain. Andrea Falconieri was composer and musician to the Neapolitan court, creating music for the Spaniards' particular tastes and fancies.
Falconieri's collection of dance pieces, published in Naples in 1650, are tuneful, energetic pieces, fascinating in their ability to straddle dividing lines: stylistically they cut the absolute median between Italian and Spanish music of the period, while at the same time they manage to combine in equal parts qualities of the Renaissance consort's dance suite with the sonority and verve of the new basso continuo chamber sonata of the stil moderno. La Luna's performance is fully worthy of the music, evoking complex moods and emotions while keeping the toe atap.
La Luna absolutely wowed audiences at the 1997 Boston Early Music Festival. Brian Clark, writing in the UK's Early Music Review, raved: "To say the least, this was an hour of sheer delight. From the very opening piece (Schmelzer's Lanterley Sonata), they enchanted their audience with stunning roulades, impeccable ensemble (the violinists, particular have a common sixth sense) and, put quite simply, the sheer wonder of their combined musicality. Here was a bass player who could make her presence felt without becoming a blustering buffoon, and a harpsichordist who does everything right. It is utterly amazing that no major record company has discovered La Luna:... [ :-) ] they are absolutely faultless and deserve to be more widely known."
This CD recently received FOUR STARS in a review from GOLDBERG,
The Early Music Magazine.
See review in Early Music America
La Luna presented a concert at the
Boston
Early Music Festival & Exhibition. that was widely regarded
as the most exciting concert of the Festival!
 |
J. S. BACH: |
Robert Edward Smith, harpsichord (Eric Herz, Boston 1969)
Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, BWV 903; Capriccio upon the Departure
of his Beloved Brother, BWV 992; Concerto in D after Vivaldi, BWV 972;
Six Little Preludes, BWV 933-938; Toccata in D, BWV 912. Tom Lazarus, engineer.
Peter Nothnagle, editor. DDD 60'56" $15.98
Read J. A. Van Sant's review in Fi
Magazine by clicking here.
NOW DIRECT FROM THE MUSICAL OFFERING.
As far as we can determine, this is the first digital recording of harpsichord
performance practice that was familiar in the '50s and 60s- with sixteen
foot stop, pedal activation, and plenty of Sturm und Drang. Definitely
not HIP, except in a latter-day sort of way. A very exciting recording,
it deserves to be heard and taken seriously on its own terms. For some,
this CD will evoke harpsichord performances of long ago- Landowska, Kirkpatrick,
Puyana; for others, it will be a revelation, an experience of harpsichord
music that is totally new and alive. In test marketing, this CD has “charted”
on college radio stations devoted primarily to pop, rock and other youth-oriented
forms. Asked to explain this, the Music Director of KALX (UC Berkeley)
shrugged his shoulders and said simply, “It's psychotic.” Smith's recording
was selected as “Radio Pick of the Month” for the August `96 issue
of Gramophone.
|
Music for the Royal Pleasures |
|
Linda Burman-Hall,
harpsichord & organ
(harpsichord by William Dowd, Boston 1981, after Michael Mietke, Berlin,
1716)
1/5 comma meantone tuning.
Charles Fisk "meantone" organ, Memorial Church, Stanford University
Catherine Liddell, lute.
Lute contraparties composed by Robert Strizich $15.98
NOW DIRECT FROM THE MUSICAL OFFERING.
There are many 'firsts' on this compact disc. It is the first recording of the complete works of Hardel, a prominent harpsichordist in the musicians circle at the court of the young Louis XIV, which included Louis Couperin, Chambonnières, D'Anglebert, Dumont, Richard and Froberger, to mention only the harpsichordists. Similarly Étienne Richard, who was harpsichord teacher to the king, is represented here for the first time, in his complete works for keyboard. One of Hardel's suites is here set with a lute 'contrapartie', a known practice of the time, composed by famed lutenist Robert Strizich, and performed by Catherine Liddell.
The harpsichord is William Dowd's first copy of the Michael Mietke instruments in the Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, the earliest example in modern times of this now-popular model. Strung entirely in brass, the Mietke has many characteristics in common with Italian harpsichords, and especially with seventeenth-century French instruments.
The organ is the last instrument built by the C.B. Fisk Organ Works of Boston during the life of Charles Fisk, its founder and designer of this instrument. It is one of the largest organs in the United States tuned in meantone tuning, and with many stops of French design is eminently suited to French music of this period. The Fisk has an ingenious mechanism by which its tuning may be changed from quarter-comma meantone to 'well-tempered' tuning. Several extra pipes per octave are provided for the purpose.
Dr Burman-Hall has included generous, scholarly and readable notes to accompany the recording, with fresh, insightful information on these little-known composers.
|
|
Elisabeth Claude |
Ingrid Matthews,
baroque violin; Byron Schenkman,
harpsichord,
Margriet Tindemans,
viola
da gamba.
Six Suites employing obligato bass, rendering in effect Sonates en trio, a form which had not yet found expression in France. Recorded at Pony Tracks Ranch, Portola Valley, California. Peter Nothnagle, engineer, Joseph Spencer, producer DDD $15.98
Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre rose to prominence at the early
court of Louis XIV as a child prodigy, dazzling the young king with her
prowess at the harpsichord. She was four. She remained a royal favorite
throughout Louis' reign, composing chamber music and an opera, and hosting
salons
in her Paris apartments. The recording is unusually full and rich in sound,
the three instruments constantly displaying the composer's wealth of invention
and genius for sound.
| Jean-Fery Rebel (1666-1747) Sonatas pour le Violon (1713) Suite in G (1705) |
 |
Like Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Jean-Fery Rebel was brought to the Parisian court as a child prodigy, and lived to enjoy a long and productive career as a musician and composer. Beginning as a creature of the court of Louis XIV, he later was a major protagonist in the controversy over the Italian versus the French styles, championing the more modern style. Late in life he gained fame for a wildly aberrant orchestral suite, "Les Elemens" in which he experimented briefly but dramatically with atonalism.
The works presented here date from the middle of Rebel's career, late in the reign of le Roi Soleil, when all Paris was embroiled in a raging controversy over which musical style was superior: the French or the Italian. The King and his minister of music, Lully clearly favored the French "Lulliste" mode (despite the fact of Lully's Italian heritage), while the modernists (including Francois Couperin) favored the more energetic, forceful imported style.
Of the pieces presented on this disc, the Suite(1705) reflects Rebel's fondness and respect for Marin Marais, while the Sonatas, as their title suggests, show the impact of Arcangelo Corelli. Interestingly, the final Sonata returns almost entirely to suite form and gesture, suggesting that Rebel may have come down on the side of his countrymen in the end.
As with the Jacquet de la Guerre, the gamba part is often given material
entirely independent of the basso continuo, rendering these sonatas more
like trio sonatas, or, as the French would call them, Sonates en trio.
|
|
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH HARPSICHORD MUSIC |
Froberger: Toccata IV, Canzon VI, Suite in C minor, Tombeau de Mons. De Blanrocher, Louis Couperin: Suite in D. Chambonnières: Pièces de clavecin in F; D'Anglebert: Prelude in G minor, Passacaglia d'Armide, Tombeau de Mons. Chambonnières
Michael Lynn, engineer, Joseph Spencer, producer $15.98
NOW DIRECT FROM THE MUSICAL OFFERING.
After 15 years, this recording continues to be both popular and controversial. Now in its third pressing, it remains a favorite for Parmentier's extraordinarily expansive readings of this beautiful repertoire, and controversial for its tangy meantone tuning, based on systems dating from c. 1600 (Zarlino, others) and advocated (if not prevalent) in Paris 60-75 years later.
"One of the greatest harpsichord recordings of all time." --Eugene Finley
 |
"MUSIC
ENGLISH |
Edward Parmentier,
harpsichord Keith Hill, after Ruckers 1640.
Music of Byrd, Bull, Farnaby, Gibbons, Phillips, & others.
Tuning 1/4 comma meantone by Joseph Spencer. Engineer Peter Nothnagle,
engineer. Joseph Spencer, producer. DDD 76' 15" CD only $15.98
"...bristles with white-hot energy"—
American
Record Guide
"There is an inner vitality throughout these performances"Fanfare
A principal aim of this recording was color--achieved in Keith
Hill's deliciously quirky instrument, goaded to its dialectical extreme
by the tangy meantone temperament. A program of widely varied pieces of
domestic music from the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries.
Parmentier is brilliant, at his very best, extruding extraordinary power
from what appear on the page to be modest works. The music presents an
astonishing range of variety, from the rather incredibly forceful little
prelude of Orlando Gibbons that opens the program, through the wonderfully
Renaissance intellectuality of Tomkins' Lady Folett's Galliard or
William Tisdall's Pavana Chromatica, to toe-tapping dance rhythms
of the anonymous Qui passa- a veritable Tudor feast for the ears!
Fugue in D minor K 417, Sonatas in E minor, K 263, 264; D minor K213; D major K 214; D major K 140, 224; B minor K 87, 27; A major, K 219, 24.
Michael Lynn, engineer, Joseph Spencer, producer $15.98
NOW DIRECT FROM THE MUSICAL OFFERING.
Review in American Record Guide
Review in Stereophile
One of the recordings that established Wildboar's reputation for daring
and innovation in both sound and interpretation, this CD remains unique
in all its dynamics. Parmentier's energy and innovation remain hallmarks
for all who hear and all who play the harpsichord. Vintage Parmentier,
groundbreaking Scarlatti.
Harpsichord tuning & preparation by Edward Parmentier & Joseph
Spencer. Peter Nothnagle, engineer. Joseph Spencer, prod. DDD. Duration
2h 20'38" 2 CDs
Fanfare review
The Six Partitas, Bach's Opus 1, self-published by the master during the period that he succeeded in getting the prestigious post at the St-Thomas Church in Leipzig, are for many his greatest keyboard works, surpassing the French and English Suites, which were never engraved and published in Bach's lifetime. As the first Book of the Clavierübung, they are joined by the Italian Concerto, the French Overture, the Schübler Chorales and the Goldberg Variations as his definitive statement on the art of the keyboard.
Each of the six suites begins with a large, free movement- a toccata, really- and each is given a different appellation: Praeludium, Sinfonia, Ouverture, Fantasia, Preambulum, and Toccata, each having a different connotation in terms of history and nationality. By themselves these movements are among Bach's most ambitious, challenging and rewarding pieces. The dance movements that follow are a wondrous compendium of compositional possibilities of the early eighteenth century, possibilities quite unimagined by any Bach contemporary.
Edward Parmentier applies his unmistakeable technique to these amazing pieces with impressive results. A student of Gustav Leonhardt, he possesses a unique and supple control of rhythm and articulation, enabling him to uncover revelatory nuances in familiar music. Over and over again the listener is presented with ideas that, once revealed, are unquestionably inherent in the music, but inexplicably overlooked in a lifetime of other performances. The "minor" dance movements are often revelatory in Parmentier's hands.
This set has been repackaged in the new "slimline" 2-CD case.
See Kevin Conklin's review in Sounds Like
John Bull: In nomine; The King's Hunt
Peter Philips: Passamezzo Pavan & Gagliarda; Amarilli di Julio
Romano
Thomas Tomkins: Earl Straffor Pavan & Galliard; Barafostus' Dream
William Byrd: Fantasia; Queen's Alman
Thomas Tallis: Like as a doleful Dove; O Ye Tender Babes
Orlando Gibbons: The Lord Salisbury's Pavan & Galliard
William Inglott: The Leaves bee greene.
"There is, in music for the virginals, a beautiful balance between soldity and fantasy— on the one hand, an unshakable pulse, a bedrock of structural rhythm, a logic of basic conceit, a belief in the orderliness of the universe, and on the other hand, musings, mischievousness, prankishness and invention: the quiet genius of the English people." —from the notes by Frances Conover Fitch.
Three very different keyboard instruments are employed for this unusual project: a copy of the 1640 harpsichord by Iohannes Ruckers, in petite ravalement (keyboards aligned, original 4 sets of jacks) built by Ronald Haas; a reconstruction of the virginals by Joest Karest, Antwerp (16th century) by Curtis Berak; and a "mother and child" muselaar by the late Robert Greenberg. Three very rare instruments for a body of rare and exciting music. Color photos reveal their individuality, but no moreso than the recording, which conveys a wealth of timbral detail and compelling performance, combined for a thrilling and unusual musical experience.
TERMS: We accept MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Discover, money orders, and interesting barter proposals. We also accept cash, but please don't send it through the mail.
SHIPPING: We charge $3.50 for UPS shipment anywhere in the continental US, any size shipment. Orders over $100 are shipped at our cost. Customers not accessible by UPS call to make alternate arrangement.
DISCOUNTS: We offer a 10% discount to all bona fide dues-paying members of non-profit organizations that present or promote classical and early music, including such organizations as Early Music America, SEHKS, SFEMS, SCEMS, ARS, VdGSA, etc. etc.
TO CONTACT WILDBOAR AND THE MUSICAL OFFERING:
By mail: 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley CA 94704
By fax: 510-849-9214
By toll-free telephone : 1-888-BWV-1079 (1-888-298-1079)
By local telephone: 510-849-0211
By e-mail: wildboar@MusicalOffering.com
