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.

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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).

new bach CD

© Tilman Skowroneck April 2020

My newest CD with works by J.S. Bach is now available on the German label TYXart.

The program includes the Sixth English Suite BWV 811, The Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major BWV 998 and Gustav Leonhardt’s version of the Second Violin Partita BWV 1004 which ends with the famous Ciaccona, about which I have previously written in this post. Two sound examples can be found inside this post.