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Harpsichords and Related Topics

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From:
Andrew Appel <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Harpsichords and Related Topics <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 12 Feb 2017 09:58:44 -0500
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I have had two really fine teachers and they both have added enormously to my musical soul.  Kenneth Gilbert and Albert Fuller.  Could any two be more different?
But as to Kenneth and his playing.  With few exceptions, I found him to the the harpsichordist for harpsichordists.  His subtle phrasing, beautiful….his poise..his delicate and sensitive touch were ideals for all of his students.  Listening to play any repertory was the lesson we needed and an image of that music that was a high level starting point as we worked ourselves on similar repertory.  But with few exceptions, and I remember those clearly, he wasn’t the sort of player who reached into the audience of amateurs and advocated for unfamiliar territory.  If you know the repertory, you were entirely satisfied and nourished, but if you did not, the subtlety of his interpretations and playing was unconvincing.  

Albert was entirely different.  When I made my first solo cd he said…”If your recorded performance doesnt stop me while I am shaving in order to listen to what you have to say, then dont bother.”
Albert reached across the proscenium into the hall at the expense of elegance and poise to grab the audience and say “THIS is great music and you want to know it now and more later”
Kenneth would find Albert’s performances distorted (the way a renaissance mind would find Bernini … Baroque!) and Albert would feel that Kenneth’s were without much life.  
I love them both.


> On Feb 12, 2017, at 4:53 AM, J. Claudio Di Veroli <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Victor wrote: Kenneth Gilbert's playing of D'Anglebert's G... have not
> been surpassed to my ears.
> 
> Fully agree. IMHO Kenneth Gilbert's playing of F. Couperin's Premier Livre
> in his 1971 recording has not been surpassed either. 
> 
> Interestingly, at least one very distinguished colleague (not a member of
> this list) has disagreed with me in public over how "current" is the above
> recording. Over the years, I have asked many colleagues in which way K.
> Gilbert's playing is supposedly "not expressive enough" or otherwise
> obsolete, and if so which are the sources (on historical French Baroque
> performance manners discovered in the last few decades) that supposedly
> invalidate his playing. I am still waiting for a reply. 
> 
> Rgds
> CDV
> http://couperin.braybaroque.ie/
> 

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