VOICING & REGULATION SUMMER CLASS WITH ALLAN WINKLER

Renowned harpsichord builder Allan Winkler offers a ‘must do’ course this summer for harpsichordists wanting to learn how to do basic instrument repairs. The class covers voicing and regulation of a double manual harpsichord with three registers, 2×8′, and 1×4′. Topics will include: requilling wood and plastic jacks with Delrin (white acetal plastic) plectra; assembly of wood jacks and repair of plastic jacks; how to set plectra length and shape plectra to set voicing levels; coupler adjustment, timing, and regulating three registers; setting key dip and touch; an introduction to selecting and treating feather, and voicing with quill; the basic metallurgy of harpsichord wire and how to loop and replace strings. On one evening there will be an optional visit to Allan Winkler’s harpsichord workshop in Medford for a closeup look at harpsichord-making tools and techniques and new and antique instruments.

Full details at: https://nbss.edu/news-events/news-stories/harpsichord-voicing-regulation-course/

Dates: The class is being offered twice during August – from August 5 through August 9 and from August 19 through August 23.
Hours: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Price: $1040
Instructor: Allan Winkler
Teaching Assistant: Louis Del Bene PT ’06, PA ’07
Venue: North Bennet Street School, 150 North Street, Boston, MA 02109

Class sizes are limited and will fill quickly – we recommend registering soon.

Colin Tilney – a luxurious reading of Bach’s Partitas

English/Canadian harpsichordist Colin Tilney’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Partitas was issued in 2020 under the Music and Arts label and is now also available on the main streaming services. These are luxuriant, elegant Partitas which, with their slower tempi, highlight the compelling emotional warmth of these works. This three disk recording is accompanied by erudite, yet highly accessible, notes on each of the Partitas. The recording was done on an after-Zell instrument built by English early keyboard builder and harpsichordist Colin Booth in 1984. Its wonderful balance, depth of tone, and bell-like clarity make it particularly well-suited to this music.

What the reviewers say:

Jed Distler, Classics Today: ‘Tilney retains his masterful legato finger technique, and the ability to make the quills on his resplently engineered harpsichord sing…the sheer beauty that Tilney creates in Bach’s more reflective movements may well be worth the price of admission.’

FanFare: ‘…what makes this a superior set is the adroit and lively performance by Tilney. He instinctively knows where the phrasing emphasis is to be placed, how the registrations on his instrument work to the best advantage, and how to accomplish the often tortuous interweaving lines that Bach includes.’

Colin Booth’s latest release – Fischer: Eight suites of 1698

Colin Booth, renowned English harpsichordist and early keyboard builder, issues another stellar album, this time of J.C.F. Fischer’s Eight Suites in the ‘Little Book of Flowers’ (‘Blumen-büchlein’). Colin’s almost unmatched ability to infuse dance music with an irresistible sense of lift and movement makes this recording a delight. Fischer’s beautiful Suites bloom – the music becomes irresistible, spirits are lifted, and the urge to dance becomes  insurmountable. Even the seriously dance-resistant will surely engage in foot tapping. Recorded on two instruments built by Colin Booth and issued under the Soundboard Label. Available in the U.S. at https://www.ravencd.com/ and elsewhere at https://www.colinbooth.co.uk/

Yoann Moulin’s ‘Stylus Luxurians’ – compulsive listening!

Yoann Moulin’s spectacular recording ‘Stylus Luxurians’ focuses on 17th century German harpsichord music by Weckmann, Froberger Ritter, Tunder, and Scheidemann. This was the period in which German music began to reflect elements of the French style after earlier adoption of elements of the Italian style. The result: simply gorgeous, luxurious music. This exquisite, crystal-clear recording of brilliantly played music makes for compulsive listening. Released under the Ricercar-Outhere label.

“Definitely worth a listen!” – Lillian Gordis’ new ‘Bach’ album

Lillian Gordis’ latest double-disk album ‘Bach’, released under the Paraty label, is a feast for the senses. Comprising her personal selection of Partitas, English Suites and Preludes and Fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier, this is a technical tour de force with the most compelling interpretations.

Qobuz and Pierre-Yves Lascar: “Without doubt, this is well worth a listen.” “These two musical hours are breath-taking in every sense of the word…”

An Exceptional Album from Federica Bianchi

This is a truly exceptional album – the music is glorious, the performance riveting, and the sound quality superb!

Federica Bianchi performs music written for keyboards from the early 15th century to the early years of the Baroque on three instruments built after historical models – a clavicymbalum after an early 15th century instrument and two harpsichords after Italian models from the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the earliest works on the album are from the Codex Faenza (c. 1400-1420), others are arrangements from the Renaissance, and some beauties are from the late 16th/early 17th centuries.

Delights from the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, South Africa

At the tip of Africa the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra drives a newly flourishing Early Music Scene under Artistic Director Erik Dippenaar. The Orchestra includes some of South Africa’s finest musicians and vocalists who mainly perform music of the 18th century. Here are two recent recordings by the Orchestra. In the first, the Orchestra plays William Hayes’ (1708-1777) delightful, joyous Harpsichord concerto in G major with Erik Dippenaar directing from harpsichord. The second recording is one of a series in which Orchestra members explore early repertoire originally written to be played and sung at home – Lynelle Kenned (Soprano) and Erik Dippenaar (Early Keyboardist) perform.

Erik Ryding blogs on Colin Booth’s recording of Mattheson’s ‘Melodious Talking Fingers’

If you’ve actually heard of Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), it’s probably been from his writings on music in the era of Bach and Handel. That, at least, was my own experience until the Boston Early Music Festival in 2005 produced the world premiere of his extraordinary opera Boris Goudenow – written in 1710, a century and a half before Mussorgsky’s opera on the same Boris. And, to add a Wagnerian touch to the mix, Mattheson himself wrote the libretto along with the music.

Since Boris was the centerpiece of the festival, it was only natural that other performers would wade into Matthesonian waters that week, including harpsichordists Matilda Butkas and the eminent Bruckner scholar William Carragan, who presented harpsichord duets and solos, one of which, Fugue X with three subjects, came from Mattheson’s collection of twelve fugues (lightened with a few other pieces) entitled Die Wolklingende Finger-Sprache – The Melodious Talking Fingers. (Booth, in his CD notes, also translates the title as The Melodious Language of the Fingers, which allows for a more singing interpretation of the fanciful title.)

The multitalented Colin Booth – performer, instrument builder, writer, editor, graphic designer – has now brought out a new edition of the Talking Fingers as well as a CD of the entire opus, both under the Soundboard imprint. The sheet music, edited by Booth and Matthew Brown, is based on the edition issued in 1735 and 1737 – and dedicated to George Frideric Handel, with whom Mattheson (patently a character) had once fought a duel.

Booth notes that the composer had elsewhere states, “Any kind of playing is simply an imitation … of singing” and points out that Mattheson’s subjects, though written for an instrument, have a deliberately singable quality. (One thinks also of Bach’s comment, in his description of the Inventions and Sinfonias, about developing a cantabile style of playing the keyboard.)

So it is only proper that in performing these fugues, Booth never forgets the vocal element; Fugue No. 4, in particular, seems almost like a Handelian chorus, which the dedicatee perhaps recognized. Indeed, Booth implies that the notorious plagiarizer might have lifted a theme from Mattheson’s fugue for a chorus in his Messiah.

Bach, for his part, could have borrowed from Mattheson the idea of a collection of fugues, varied with canons, for his Art of Fugue. Mattheson’s fugues on two or three subjects, moreover, might have inspired Bach’s work in that vein for his late, unfinished exploration of fugal possibilities. Unlike Mattheson, however, Bach stuck to one theme, but Mattheson’s work might have provided an impetus. While I’m on the topic of Bach, I should add that the charming final fugue of Mattheson’s collection is based on the same theme as the cantus firmus that Bach used in the piece we know as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

The fugues range from playful to severe; some are short, others lengthy. Fugue X, built on three subjects, is the longest of the set, coming in at about 9 minutes.

I gather that the harpsichord Booth plays is the double-manual instrument he built in 2016, based on a 1661 original by Nicholas Celini, which Booth himself restored. The recording has a pleasantly natural sound, and Booth’s fingers sing sweetly. This is an important contribution to our understanding of the craft of fugal counterpoint in 18th-century Germany.

–Erik Ryding

New edition of Johann Mattheson’s “Melodious Talking-Fingers”

Colin Booth and Matthew Brown recently published a new edition of Johann Mattheson’s  “Die Wohlklingende Fingersprache” (The Melodious Talking-Fingers) under the Soundboard label.  Drawing solely on the original 1735 publication , it includes beautifully clear scores for 12 fugues and assorted pieces for keyboard which are complemented by an informative Preface and useful Editorial Notes in English and German.  The Edition is a wonderful accompaniment to Colin Booth’s exquisite recordings of Mattheson’s of “The Melodious Talking Fingers” and “Twelve Suites of 1714”. The Edition and recordings can be ordered at www.colinbooth.co.uk/publication

Justin Taylor’s recent album: “La Famille Rameau”

Justin Taylor’s liquid-mercury technique and exquisite touch are fully evident in this spectacular album recorded on the Harpsichord Donzelague c. 1730 and, for one cut, an Erard 1891 piano. The album features a gorgeous mix of works by members of the Rameau family – Jean-Philippe, Claude, Claude-François, and Lazare – complemented by works of two composers inspired by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-François Tapray and Claude Debussy. This recording is rightly being showered with laudatory reviews from the critics.