Hi. Please find below an English translation of a recent post of mine (in Italian) on the online forum "Cembalo e tastiere antiche".
 
Franz Silvestri
 
______
 

Dear Friends,
 
I decided to participate in the Bray Baroque workshop and recital, following Claudio Di Veroli's proposal, for different reasons. Apart from the appreciation for the man and the musician, whom I knew reading his important publications and nice messages in this forum and on HPSCHD-L, I was immediately struck by his organizational skills, unfortunately infrequent even in other operators in cultural activities.
 
Thanking Claudio for his kind words (in his post) about my work, I am happy to be even more explicit about what he did. First, I had the occasion to learn a lot in this event. Claudio has an extensive knowledge of keyboards (the regulation and tuning of our two instruments for the workshop was impeccable). He is also a very fine performer and teacher about Baroque French music. I had no hesitation to take part in his workshop in order to get deeper into pieces by Rameau and F. Couperin, following Claudio's very clear explanations.
 
Perhaps even more interesting than the lessons was to attend the great recital given by Claudio. Please find below the programme. Over my copy, I took notes hoping soon to study these marvellous pieces, based on the excellent explanations and performances by Claudio. I was impressed by how he masters the virtuosity of the difficult embellishments, always very fluid and strongly linked to an eloquent musical narrative, underlining the expressive greatness of Couperin the Great's pieces. This was the programme:
 
FRENCH HARPSICHORD MUSIC - A selection of masterpieces by François Couperin
 
A suite in G from the 1st Ordre: Allemande l'Auguste, Sarabande la Majestueüse, Les Abeilles, La Nanete , Les Sentimens, La Manon 
 
Three pieces from the 4th, 5th and 6th Ordre: Les Ondes, Le Réveil-matin, Les Baricades Mistérieuses
 
A suite in b from the 8th and 13th Ordres: Passacaille, Les Lis naissans , L'espérance, Les Coucous Bénévoles, La Frénésie, L'âme-en-peine
 
Five pieces from the 14th, 17th and 18th Ordre: Les Fauvétes Plaintives, Le Carillon de Cithére, Les Petits Moulins à Vent, L'atendrissante, Le Tic-Toc-Choc ou les Maillotins
 
There would be much more to say about this event. It was exhilarating to play Claudio's version of Bach's Concerto for 4 harpsichords. Finally I can say that with some irony (and mutual compassion) we realised that among all the students, the most impassioned and enthusiast to learn and interchange ideas ... were Claudio and I !
 
Could it be that our "world" is about to "end"? Let us keep hoping otherwise. This is the state of mind we had while going through this Bray Baroque event.
 
Kind regards
 
Franz Silvestri

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::