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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new recordings

© Tilman Skowroneck 2015

On 22 and 23 June 2015 I had the pleasure to record a mixed program of Froberger, Louis Couperin and Rameau (the first suite, which I hadn’t previously recorded) in the quiet and lovely church of Jonsered close to Gothenburg. Further below are some sneak clips (music edits done, but perhaps not the ultimate final tonal balance). The recording was made by Herwin Troje. As always, please contact me for permission before sharing these links.

The instrument, a little unexpectedly, is a one-manual brass-strung harpsichord after German originals, with a 392-415 keyboard.

Temperaments used: a ‘French ordinaire’ variation and Rameau (which, really, is another ‘French ordinaire’ variation), at a=392Hz. The project was initiated by the instrument’s owner Bengt Nässén.

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616—1667)

Toccata VI in A minor

Gigue

Lamentation, faite sur la tres douloreuse Mort de Sa Majeste Imperiale, Ferdinand le Troisieme

Louis Couperin (c. 1626—1661)

Prélude in D minor

Allemande

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683—1764)

Prélude

first CD production remembered

Yesterday I uploaded some samples from the completely remastered version of a CD that was issued in 1993 under the somewhat juvenile title Three harpsichords Seven composers (see here for the uploads). The idea of the original production, initiated by a friend who also provided the contacts, was to combine several harpsichordy instruments (a 2-manual French, a 5-octave 1-manual Italian and a pentagonal virginal) and a selection of suitable repertoire in a sampler fashion which he had seen and liked in a CD production with historical organs.

This disk has been sold out for years. Last year I bought the recording tapes, the master CD and the rights. My friend Erik Sikkema has now made a complete new edition from the selected takes.

Why all this effort, one could ask. Many musicians are actually not very interested in their old recordings – I would characterize my own interest in my early efforts as “mild” at best. But this production is different – it is my first solo CD. It is also different in that it came out of the editing process quite battered and bent. Here’s the story.