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.

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first and last – 60 years (and a few) of skowroneck harpsichords

© Tilman Skowroneck 2019

Just as I was writing that Martin Skowroneck’s unfinished harpsichord no. 90 now reaches completion in the Oldenburg workshop of Dietrich Hein (see also here), Menno van Delft sent me pictures of the first Skowroneck harpsichord, which is on display in the Berlin instrument collection.

(Photo: Menno van Delft 2019)

So this is “no. 1”, a rather ambitious project with a 16′, 2x 8′, 4′ and buff stop, built in 1953. According to Martin Skowroneck (Cembalobau; Harpsichord Construction (Bergkirchen: Bochinsky, 2003), 261–62), this instrument is very globally based on a sketch of harpsichord no. 316 (known as “Bach-Cembalo” at the time) in the Berlin collection (which explains why it looks more or less historical in shape and especially, why it has this particular disposition). The inner construction is more or less modern (in want of better information at the time), with heavy frame members in ash, ribs under the bridge and a thin 4′ hitchpin rail. The boards for the case had to be prepared at a machine pool in Bremen, to be carried on foot across town for assembly in the basement of Skowroneck’s rented house in the Gravelottestraße. Knowing only this story, I was quite astonished to see such a neatly finished and gleaming harpsichord-shaped object on Menno’s photo!

Fast forward sixty years, to harpsichord no. 90.

new CD now commercially available

© Tilman Skowroneck 2018

As I have written previously, I made a new solo recording in June 2015. It is now available on CD, produced by the German label TYXart. The official announcements are here (German) and here (English). Listening examples can be found here. The CD is available worldwide, for instance at amazon.com. If you already have this disk, why not go there and leave a review?

The initial reviews were very positive. See my “reviews” page for a few examples.

The complete track list follows below:

cembalophilia? cembalophilia.

© Tilman Skowroneck 2016

The Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, in partnership with the 2016 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition, organises “Cembalophilia: Hidden Histories of the Harpsichord”, a mini-festival with concerts and lectures, which will take place in the Berkeley City Club June 6-8, 2016 (see also the poster below for more information; I will participate in the Tribute to Alan Curtis).

I love the title “Cembalophilia.” Is this even a thing, one might wonder, and yes, be assured, it can be a thing. People do love good harpsichords and their repertoire, and good harpsichordists.

Often they don’t even know it, however, which may be why we usually play for smaller audiences than we feel we should. But this is also why – as I may have written before – after a recital audience members always come forward and want to learn more about the harpsichord on stage. “I had no idea there was so much variation in this instrument!” we frequently hear at that point.

Keyboard Perspectives VIII (2015) now available

© Tilman Skowroneck 2016

Volume VIII is the second volume of the Yearbook of the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies Keyboard Perspectives of which I have been the guest editor. It is dedicated to combination keyboard instruments and their repertoire.

My preface and a table of contents can be found here. The volume can be ordered by sending an email to info@westfield.org.

Harpsichord mini-festival in Göteborg

Göteborgs Cembalofestival will take place April 15-17. Workshops at the beginning of the first day April 15 (in Swedish) are held at Högskolan för scen och musik, all other events are at the Haga church, including the lecture Roman och den neapolitanska stilen i Sverige by Anna Paradiso Laurin on April 16, 10.00-11.30

The concerts are:

April 15, 6:00 pm: joint recital featuring Ulrika Davidsson, Tilman Skowroneck, Joel Speerstra, Andreas Edlund, Jan Karlsson Delemark

April 16, 12:00, Anna Paradiso Laurin (J H Roman, D Scarlatti och P D Paradies)

April 16, 18:00, Skip Sempé (L Couperin, F Couperin, A Forqueray, J-P Rameau, L Marchand et al)

April 17, 11:00, high mass, with Johanna Thür, harpsichord and organ, and Eva Maria Thür, cello

Link to the poster (PDF): Affisch Cembalo 2016b

Martin Skowroneck obituary published

© Tilman Skowroneck 2015, updated 2 May 2016.

My new article “Remembering Martin Skowroneck (1926-2014)” is now available in the most recent issue of the yearbook of the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies,

Keyboard Perspectives Vol. VII/2014, pp. 147-164 (table of contents and editor’s preface here).

The article includes a “List of Large Keyboard Instruments by Martin Skowroneck”. This will be my only article-length Skowroneck-obituary.

Keyboard Perspectives can be ordered directly by sending an e-mail to info@westfield.org.

The remainder of this very promising Vol. VII, edited by Tom Beghin, is dedicated to Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata Op. 106.