C.P.E. Bach & the Versuch 13Feb09 | 1

This afternoon I open the letter-box and find that sort of annoying note from the Post Office: “we’ve been there with the parcel you’ve been waiting for… but there was nobody at home”… Luckily,  in The Netherlands they use to leave them at the neighbors (and by chance we received yesterday another parcel for them!). So finally, no waits, no lines in the Post Office: “the CarlPhilipp” has arrived! [1]

I was kind of afraid with the book because (I must admit it) it was the first time I ordered a second hand one online… But it is in perfect condition: just a pair of pencil lines and looks of having lived in the shelf of a public library. And with a nice ecologic packing, as BetterWorldBooks promised: no plastic anywhere!

We are now in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)’s Month. Last Tuesday, Satoko led the usual group-lesson together with Siebe’s presentation. And next 25th we all will play in the voorspeel…

Also, because of CarlPhilipp’s “fault”, we are in the clavichord month. So by now I am re-educating my little fingers with the first of the Probe-Stücke included in the Versuch. Much fun!

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[1] BACH, C.P.E. (1753/1762): Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, i (Berlin, 1753/R, 2/1787); ii (Berlin, 1762/R, 2/1797). English translation MITCHELL, W.J. (ed.): Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. New York, 1949.

The Dutchman & the honeybees 08Feb09 | 0

Last Friday I went to the concert at the end of the first day of the International Baroque Dance Symposium celebrated (until this morning) in the new Amsterdam conservatory (that I also wanted to visit).

And I really enjoyed it: it was a short but at the same time varied programme, with students and teachers from the conservatory (exquisite Francesco Corti’s continuo!) and dancers from the Nationale Balletacademie and not so “national” ones like Ricky Barros, which expressiveness during the folias deserved itself being there…

French and Italian music…, and a little “present” from the Spanish Escuela Bolera:

Modern harpsichords 01Feb09 | 0

Last Friday Siebe organized us a visit to Rijswijk (mmm, unfortunately now that I don’t live beside anymore), where we were invited to see Frank Venema’s small collection of modern harpsichords. In the main living-room we found:

  • Société Anonyme Pleyel (Paris, 1939): “Gran Modèle de Concert”, designed in 1912 in cooperation with Wanda Landowska
  • J.C. Neupert GmbH & Ko KG (Bamberg, 1968): Model “Bach”, designed in 1932
  • Th.R.C. Goff & J.C. Cobby (London, 1969)

Beside we could see another single keyboard Neupert, a square piano and a copy of a Dulcken (Antwerp, 1745) by G.C. Klop (Garderen, 1978).

I don’t think any of us has thought about ordering such instruments, but it was really interesting to play with the sounds that inspired Poulenc and Falla, and the registration possibilities of the pedals!

more pictures

who said...

"[Beethoven] went in his usual (I might say, ill-bred) manner to the instrument as if half-pushed, picket up the violoncello part of Steibelt's quintet in passing, placed it (intentionally?) upon the stand upside down and with one finger drummed out a theme of the first few measures. Insulted and angered, he improvised in such a manner that Steibelt left the room before he finished, would never again meet him and, indeed, made it a condition that Beethoven should not be invited before accepting an offer."

F.W. Wegeler & F. Ries, Biographische Notizen über Ludwig van Beethoven (Koblenz, 1838)

"[...] the king [Charles II of Spain] eagerly asked me if I had heard Matheuchi sing, when he would come, and if he was impertinent or not, and as if there were no army in the world, nor Milanese state, completely forgot such matters, but this is not surprising given that all his ministers, or most of them, have had the same experience [...]"

Letter of Carlos Felipe Spinola y Colonna to the duke of Medinaceli (1698)

"I was in St Alban's Abbey and I was intrigued: they were building a new organ and I went up to - I suppose it must have been - the verger and I said, 'Is the organ baroque?' And he said, 'No, it's in perfectly good order.'"

John Tavener, The Music of Silence, A Composer's Testament (Faber ISBN 0571200885)

"The Second Harpsichordist will go only to the last rehearsal, sending the Third One to the previous, who won't read more high Clef than Soprano, trying to play without using the Thumbs, don't follow the Numbers, play always the Sixth, don't meet up with the Master, and close all the second Parts of Arias with major thirds, etc. etc. etc."

Benedetto Marcello, Il teatro alla moda (1720)