Re: GG: Harpsichord Playing

[Christy Leung <christle@unixg.ubc.ca>]

Hello all!

On 24 Apr 1996 PHILIP.GARON@hq.doe.gov wrote:

>      
>      John Mansfield wrote:
>      
>      > There is a commercial recording of GG doing four of the Handel 
>      > harpsichord suites.  I am not very fond of it, but then-I am
>      > not very fond of the harpsichord.
>      
>      Wasn't it Sir Thomas Beecham who said that the sound of the 
>      harpsichord reminded him of two skeletons copulating on a tin 
>      roof?

Well, sounds like he didn't hear the harpsicord being played very well!  
The harpsicord is a very beautiful, delicate instrument, but it seems to 
be very difficult to play it well.  I've done quite a bit of listening to 
harpsicord performances recently and the majority of them aren't very 
good - slow, labourous, BORING!  But there was one artist that I really 
enjoyed called Igor Kipnis.  His playing is full of fire and verve.  I 
heard several of his recordings on LP and I don't know if they're out on 
CD.  If you can get a hold of some of his recordings, try him out!  In 
particular, his performance of the Sinfonia from the C minor partita is 
excellent.

Christy