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Music open thread: Harpsichord concertos [1]
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Date: 2025-04-28
American-born harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe was a world-renowned harpsichordist and recording artist. She was born in New York in 1908. After her death in 1981, Bernard Holland wrote for the New York Times that Marlowe
studied piano and organ as a child and spent four years in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger. It was there that she first heard and was deeply impressed by the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. Years later Miss Marlowe studied with Landowska, who exercised a great influence on her musical development.
Marlowe made many recordings of various compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, as one would expect. She also commissioned a few contemporary composers, including Elliott Carter and Vittorio Rieti. The music of the latter was quite a pleasant discovery for me at the library.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote a powerful Harpsichord Concerto in D minor. As you listen, remember that this predates Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by at least three decades.
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The paterfamilias, Johann Sebastian Bach, also wrote a Harpsichord Concerto in D minor.
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And also quite a few for two harpsichords, including this one in C major...
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Or how about three of them?
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Moving closer to the modern era, this concerto by Manuel de Falla, which I’ve long enjoyed in a recording by Igor Kipnis and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez. In the following video, it’s played by a much smaller ensemble. It begins a little bit like Vagn Holmboe, but ends more like Joaquín Rodrigo.
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This video with a fuller ensemble is just the finale.
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I met Henryk Górecki in Ann Arbor decades ago. Back then it wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask him if his own Harpsichord Concerto was at all influenced by Falla’s. Górecki’s concerto has been described as “a striking trinket.” The piece was written for Elżbieta Chojnacka, who was to Poland as Sylvia Marlowe to America.
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Piotr Orzechowski decided to add a cadenza that almost takes the piece out of its style but is very interesting.
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This concerto is often played with piano instead of harpsichord, such as in Adam Kosmieja’s performance with the Capella Bydgostiensis conducted by Jose Maria Florencio.
The open thread question: What is your favorite music with harpsichord solos?
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