New Couperin CD now available

© Tilman Skowroneck November 2021

My new CD with selections from François Couperin’s second and third Ordres and the complete eighth Ordre (including three preludes in suitable keys from L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin) is now available at the label TYXArt. It can be bought via the usual online sellers such as Amazon, etc. See also this post for pictures and sound samples.

The recording was made in Ödenäs church on March 4 and 5, 2020, by Erik Sikkema. The Harpsichord is an 18th-century French model (5 octaves) by Martin Skowroneck (1980). For people interested in these things, the same harpsichord can also be heard in Gustav Leonhardt’s 1981 recording of harpsichord works by C.-B. Balbastre and A.-L- Couperin and on my own recording of the suites in E, D and A by J.-Ph. Rameau (Emergo Classics 2001, EC3921-2, also recorded by Erik Sikkema).

Here is a link to the magnificent B-minor Passacaille from the 8th Ordre from the (rather compressed-sounding) auto-generated Youtube playlist.

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Updates on the sales page

© Tilman Skowroneck June 2021

I’ve recently added an antique French (anonymous) pardessus de viole (located in Paris) on my “sales” page, and updated the information on the English bentside spinet made by Martin Skowroneck in 1968 (a demo video here). I am also listing an Italian harpsichord for sale in The Netherlands. The “sales” page is being updated regularly.

3 pieces from forqueray’s suite no. 1

© Tilman Skowroneck 2021

Edited June 30, 2021. Here are a few pieces from Forqueray’s first suite in D-minor. I was originally planning to home-record the entire suite but the acoustics here in the living room are compromised and also I got embroiled in other projects, so I’m keeping it at the first three for the time being.

I’ve always loved this suite especially, possibly because it’s the first suite by Forqueray I ever heard …

La Laborde, recorded 20 May 2020.

La Forqueray, recorded 7 June 2020.

La Cottin, recorded 3 July 2020

remembering M. S.

May 14, 2020

Today six years ago, Martin Skowroneck passed away. He would have been 93 years old now. I made a spontaneous–after-dinner-recording in his memory of one of my favorite pieces, the Prélude in D by Jean – Henry D’Anglebert.

Later tonight, we will celebrate him by filling, lifting, and emptying, a glass in his memory. I know he would have wanted that.

 

stay-at-home cyclopes

In my second stay-at-home video, I play J.Ph. Rameau’s Les Cyclopes, a piece that is good for encores but dangerous to play when too tired (so it’s always good to have an alternative ready!).

 

 

stay-at-home baricades

Recording oneself at home is now an accepted thing that musicians (including harpsichordists!) do, who are stranded at home with their concerts canceled. Below is a link to my after-dinner version of François Couperin’s rather mysterious baricades. The meaning of the title of the piece from his second book of Pieces de Clavecin remains unknown, according to the Wikipedia article, although there are a number of possibilities of varying degrees of juiciness.

The challenge of this not-frightfully-difficult piece is to find a balance between the indication Vivement and not playing so fast that the harpsichord begins to sound like a mechanical 18th-century toy.

françois couperin recordings coming soon

I spent two of the last days in March 2020 before the (comparatively moderate, but still) Swedish coronavirus-stay-at-home recommendations went live, recording a harpsichord program with music by François Couperin. The program contains the first Prélude in C-major and selections from the third Ordre in C-minor from book 1 of the Pièces de Clavecin; the second Prélude in D-major and selections from the second Ordre, and the sixth Prélude in B-minor and the entire magnificent eighth Ordre in B-minor.

Two sound samples are here (Second Ordre, La Terpsicore and La Garnier:

The recording was made in Ödenäs church on March 4 and 5, 2020, by Erik Sikkema. The Harpsichord is a 18th-century French model (5 octaves) by Martin Skowroneck (1980).