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 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.