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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
September 29, 2007
Sir Thomas Beecham, as is well known, did not enjoy the sound of the harpsichord - and said as much on several memorable occasions.
To be fair to Sir Thomas, harpsichord building has improved considerably since his day: no longer are instrument-makers attempting to build an instrument which can hold its own in the company of a full orchestra. The result is far better-sounding instruments.
And when, in addition to the gorgeous sound the EMSI's harpsichord makes, you add the musicianship and sensitivity of Katelyn Clark, you begin to wonder whether even Sir Thomas might have changed his mind and withdrawn his strictures.
Clark was the artist chosen to inaugurate the EMSI's series of recitals featuring local artists - and a worthy choice she proved.
Although the opening Deuxième Suite by Antoine Forqueray was originally composed for the bass viol and transcribed for harpsichord by his son Jean-Baptiste - or perhaps, as Clark's lucidly-written programme note suggested, by Jean-Baptiste's second wife - there was nothing in the music to suggest its origin was for any other instrument, so good was the transcription.
Clark's playing, too, was fluent with an improvisatory feel, as if she were discovering the music as she played it.
The short group of pieces from Jacques Duphly's Troisième livre de pièces de clavecin were, by turns, sombre, charming and dramatic. All were beautifully played.
For non-specialists, thought, like myself I suspect that it was the second half of the programme which rally grabbed the attention; the Vingt-unième ordre, by Couperin, in particular seemingly occupied a higher musical plane than anything we'd heard earlier.
The five individual pieces covered a considerable range of emotions, each one of which was meticulously conveyed by Clark's playing.
The last item on the programme was also the most exciting, Antonio Soler's Fandango (assuming - there does seem to be some doubt - that he actually composed it).
The description of this work in the publicity material as "dazzling" was no less than the truth. Not only is the music recognisably Spanish - there were harmonic and rhythmic gestures that would resurface in the music of de Falla and Granados over a century later - it is highly virtuosic and, in places, tests not on the technique of the performer but also, I suspect, the instrument itself: surely those rapidly repeated notes are pushing the boundaries of how fast the keys can be depressed? After all, Sébastien Érard's double-escapement mechanism for the piano was not invented until 1821.
As a conclusion to the recital, Soler's Fandango could hardly be bettered, showing Clark's immaculate technique at its most exciting - those hand-crossings!
Although spending an entire evening listening to the harpsichord would not necessarily have been my first choice, given a player of Katelyn Clark's calibre I might very well have changed my mind.
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