GG Wish list: FVB, clavichord

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Matthew White wrote:

> Speaking of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, does anyone know of a good
> recording of selections from it?

Many.

This morning I listened to the very fine disc of 11 Byrd selections from
the FVB played by Ursula Deutschler.  Claves CD 50-9001, released 1989. 
Elaine Thornburgh's Byrd disc (Koch 3-7057-2, 1991) is also good.  And
James Nicolson's, Titanic 225.  And Timothy Roberts on the Naxos
collection (8.550604) of Byrd's consort music and songs.  And of course
anything by Gustav Leonhardt. 

I'm not usually a fan of Christopher Hogwood's playing, but remember that
his "My Ladye Nevells Booke" (which has some pieces that appear both there
and in FVB) was an excellent set on LP at least ten years ago; I've never
seen it on CD but will grab it when I do. 

Emer Buckley and Paul Nicholson each did a good disc of Peter Philips. 

Ton Koopman's disc of selections from the FVB is well-played, in a very 
bright/sparkly manner.  Sort of like harpsichord on caffeine.

An even more heavily caffeinated version of many Bull pieces from the FVB
is the disc by Pierre Hantai released last year on Astree.  Some of it's
pretty astonishing.  Bob van Asperen's Bull disc is fine, too. 

I've heard good things about the Thomas Tomkins series by Bernhard
Klapprott (on MD+G, four separate discs), and have one of those discs on
order but it hasn't arrived yet. 

I heard some of the old Joseph Payne set of FVB selections (on Vox) a few
years ago, but decided not to buy it...he used one of those
strange-sounding 20th-century harpsichords inappropriate to the music, and
I thought his playing wasn't as secure (yet free) as his more recent
playing has been.  In the parts I heard there were some strange splices
and other sound problems, too. 

That is, a lot of the FVB is available but usually not as an integral 
set.  Just pick some of the composers and look for them separately.  The 
FVB is often the major or only source for those pieces anyway.

I'm playing two of the Byrd FVB pieces tonight in a concert, on virginal: 
Prelude 100/Fantasia 52, and the Passamezzo Pavan and Galliard.

> Also, does anyone know of a recording of
> WTC or any Bach family music played on clavichord? I really have grown to
> love the clavichord, except it's so hard to find recordings of it. All I
> have is Keith Jarrett's Book of Ways and a Hogwood/Rousset duet album.

The classic WTC set on clavichord is Ralph Kirkpatrick's from many years
ago.  I think Colin Tilney has also done one of the two books.  There was
a Thurston Dart LP of all six French Suites (but with no repeats,
unfortunately), and Leonhardt did one of the suites on a clavichord disc a
few years ago.  John Butt plays some of Kuhnau's "Biblical Sonatas" on 
clavichord on Harmonia Mundi.

There are quite a few other clavichord recordings by various people,
especially Bernard Brauchli, Joan Benson, Tilney, and Leonhardt.  The disc
of "Iberian clavichord music" (mostly Cabezon) on Harmonia Mundi is a
great one from last year...that one is played by Wjuniski (HMC 905236). 

The Jarrett disc you mention is I think kind of strange, because he uses
two clavichords (one hand on each) part of the time.  But enjoyable. 
There's also a delightful disc of "Porgy and Bess" numbers played by Oscar
Peterson(!) with Joe Pass on guitar.  The guy who tuned for those sessions
told me that Peterson played so heavily that the instrument had to be
retuned after each piece! 

If you really want to find out huge amounts of info about clavichords,
hang out on hpschd-l or search its archives.  Quite a few players and
builders on there.  http://albany.edu/~hpschd-l/ See also the harpsichord
page I have at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/hpsi.html -- sound
samples and more links.  Yes, there's even a GG sample: that Wittmayer
instrument he used in his strange versions of the Handel suites. 

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.44N+78.87W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/