Sample Recordings

Last update 17 May 2020. Newest additions blog-style on top of the page.

This page contains some samples from my recordings and concerts as mp3 files. It can be considered the “archive” while the newest recordings, i.e. samples from my commercial CDs from the last years as well as some home videos (a new feature inspired by the acquisition of a new iPhone and by the current Coronavirus crisis) can be found in individual posts on the main page of this blog. The videos are also available on my YouTube channel.

The recording quality of the selections varies: some recordings are professional, others are ad-hoc sketches that were created with a minidisk player while on tour.

Here are two fortepiano recordings on my 1805 Broadwood (with flute). These are all from a radio concert from 17 September 2005. The flutist is Maria Bania. More selections from the same concert are further below.

Friedrich Kuhlau: Duo Brilliante Op. 110, I Allegro vivace con energia

Erik Drake, Divertimento sur un motif de la Romance

In the Kuhlau Allegro I had to re-arrange the treble passages to fit the 5 1/2-octave range of the Broadwood. In my view, arrangements like this were typical practice in the early 19th century.

Claude Balbastre: La d’Héricourt

Orlando Gibbons: Fantasia in g

Recorded live 12 January 2013 (Gustav Leonhardt memorial concert, Gothenburg, Haga Church. Recording by Erik Sikkema)

Selections from the remastered re-edited version of the CD Three harpsichords, seven composers.

This was my first solo CD, recorded in the early 1990s in the Caroli church in Borås, Sweden. The original mastering was disappointing because a too hands-on filter had been applied for the sound, and some editing errors were left uncorrected. I later obtained the rights to the original sound files and Erik Sikkema and I spent an afternoon re-tracing and re-doing all the edits, while also re-instating the original sound profile that was actually quite fine.

Thomas Morley
Nancie
Anonymus
Barafostus’ Dream
Pentagonal Virginal by Martin Skowroneck 1981.
Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata D-minor K. 52, Andante moderato
Sonata D-minor K. 191, Allegro
Sonata F-minr K. 185, Andante
Sonata F-minor K. 184, Allegro
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Partite 14 sopra l’Aria della Romanesca
Italian one-manual five-octave (,G-g”’) harpsichord by Martin Skowroneck 1988.
Johann Joseph Fux
Ciaccona
2manual French harpsichord by Martin Skowroneck 1981
(recorded 1992 by Cees Trapman, edited 2008 by Erik Sikkema).

A. Forqueray:

La Laborde
La Portugaise
Recorded live 24 July 2008, Vänga Church (Sweden).

Francois Couperin, 8 Preludes from L’Art de toucher Le Clavecin

Prelude 1 C major
Prelude 2 D minor
Prelude 3 G minor
Prelude 4 F major
Prelude 5 A major
Prelude 6 B minor
Prelude 7 B-flat major
Prelude 8 E minor
Private recording Bremen 11 May 2008. 2-manual French harpsichord by Martin Skowroneck 2008 (no. 89). This, we now know, was the last two-manual harpsichord completed by Martin Skowroneck. After this instrument, he made a number of smaller ones and the last two-manual harpsichord he began was left unfinished. I just had concluded voicing the instrument (he later found it still “too loud” which in view of Delrin’s work hardening pattern is a correct assessment). This recording was literally made between lunch and tea, and later edited on my computer.

Tilman Skowroneck