Re: GG...and that harpsichord (kipnis)

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

I hope most of the other people on the list are finding this harpsichord
discussion as interesting as Bradley and I are, because I just don't feel
quite done with it yet.  Patience appreciated.

I've been listening to a compilation cd by harpsichordist Igor Kipnis that I
picked up at the library and the final piece on that album is the Turkish
march from Mozart's K331.  The sound of the harpsichord (non-buffstopped
that is) brings out the natural scintillation to this piece, a sparkling
that GG battled so successful and entertainingly against in his famous
recording.  Maybe instead of playing Handel on the instrument the music was
composed for (something likely to make our hero stumble) GG should have made
an album of Mozart and Schoenberg on the harpsichord.


Jim

Ps, thanks again to Bradley for explaining why the Handel A Major prelude
sounds so strange.  Such information is valuable to people like me who have
no musical training and can't really tell from listening to the piece
exactly why it sounds the way it does.  And even more thanks for explaining
how the harpsichord is constructed.  The more knowledge we have, the better
equipped we are to appreciate and understand the music.


I'm curious if Bradley has any thoughts concerning how his favorite piece on
the Handel cd, track 2, comes right after one of the oddest, track 1, the
pantemporal A Major prelude.  Is GG brining us back to present Earth-time,
aiming for as much contrast as possible?  Showing us for just a few minutes
what an intellectually thought-out and committed GG harpsichord album could
have been?  Are we, like in 2001, moving quickly from Ligeti to Strauss?