University of Virginia Library

... 'Le Chant Du Cygne'
Of Reviewer Teri Towe

CD/David Ritchie

The Master At Work—

Teri Towe Behind The Microphone At WTJU-FM During His Classical Show

Couperin, L.; Couperin, F., Le Grand: Pieces de Clavecin. Albert
Fuller, Dowd harpsichord. Nonesuch H-71265. (1 disc)

Rameau: Pieces de Clavecin. Albert Fuller, harpsichord.
Nonesuch H-71278. (1 disc)

It has been speculated that great harpsichordists are born not
made. The speculation may very well be accurate when one
considers how idiomatic and spontaneous the correct
performance of Baroque keyboard music is. Albert Fuller and
Rafael Puyana are two of the finest harpsichordists before the
public these days, and both in recent years have made it a practice
not only to play in as authentic a manner as possible but also to
use only period instruments or exact reproductions of them. For
both Puyana and Fuller this decision meant the renunciation of
the use of pedal stop controls – rare on Baroque instruments and
devices of which Wanda Landowska, for example, made liberal
use. As Fuller told me, "The decision to take the pedals off of my
harpsichord took courage, but I soon discovered that my
performances were just as effective without pedals as they had
been with pedals."

In their most recent recordings, Puyana and Fuller have
turned to the French repertoire which both play beautifully and
with the correct style. In his two disc set of harpsichord music by
Francois Couperin, Le Grand, Puyana plays on an antique
Ruckers harpsichord dating from 1646 which had been enlarged
by the great French harpsichord maker, Pascal Taskin, in 1780.
Fuller, in his 2 albums of harpsichord pieces by Louis Couperin;
Francois Couperin, Le Grand; and Jean-Philippe Rameau uses an
instrument built by William Dowd that is patterned on an
instrument by Taskin. The listener would be very hard pressed to
detect the difference between the sounds of the two instruments,
and Fuller is careful to tune his according to the tuning principles
of the period.

Both Puyana and Fuller play this music beautifully, and I
should not like to be forced into choosing between them. Both
men are extremely well recorded, the Philips discs, as always
being stunning technical achievements.

The Orphic Egg Series: The Musical Head; Mahler's Head; Bach's
Head; Mozart's Head; Beethoven's Head; Ravel's Head;
Prokofiev's Head; and Stravinsky's Head. Orphic Egg OES 6900 -
OES 6907. (8 discs, sold separately)

Every since Peter Munves created the "Greatest Hits" series
for Columbia Masterworks some four years ago, most of the
major domestic record companies have sought to broaden the
appeal of classical music in this country through the release of
various types of collections of works by the great and near-great
composers.

The most recent series, Orphic Egg, was created, designed, and
developed by John Davidson, a U.Va. graduate and one-time
Cavalier Daily music critic, and is aimed at a young audience,
unlike the other series. The selections included on the Orphic Egg
records appear to have been chosen on the basis of accessibility
and interest to the listener, and not on the basis of their general
and established popularity. There is, as a result, a wealth of
relatively little known music on these discs, and precious few
"warhorses," I'm relieved to say.

The performances are all of good quality and have been taken
from London and Stereo Treasury releases. The cover art on five
of the eight albums is excellent, but, almost without exception,
the liner notes are almost insultingly condescending. Don't be put
off by the words on the backs of the jackets, though. The
contents of these records are well worth investigation by novice
and aficionado alike.

Byrd:

Keyboard Music; Gibbons: Keyboard Music. Glenn Gould,
piano. Columbia M 30825. (1 disc)
Handel: Suites for Harpsichord Nos. 1-4. Glenn Gould,
harpsichord. Columbia M 31512. (1 disc)

Until the release of his fantastic recording of Franz Liszt's
piano transcription of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, I was one of
Glenn Gould's most ardent antagonists, and, even now that my
opinions have made an almost complete about-face, I still find a
number of his earlier records absolutely intolerable.

Two of Gould's most recent discs are among the finest
keyboard recordings issued in recent years. I confess that I
approached both with some trepidation and that from the very
first notes I was completely won over by both. Gould's
interpretations have taken on an introspective and reflective
quality that is both sincere and moving, and he has shed many of
the eccentricities of touch and of tempo that made many of his
earlier records insufferably mannered.

The concept of playing the delicate and intricate keyboard
music of the Elizabethan period on the piano is a bit shocking at
first, but under Gould's fingers this music sounds as though it had
been conceived with the modern grand piano in mind. The
interpretations are brilliantly thought out and played, with the
performances of Byrd's Sixth Pavan and Gagliard and Sellenger's
Round being particularly impressive and moving. Another virtue
of this remarkable album is Gould's fascinating essay that serves
as the liner notes. His theoretical analysis of the music of Byrd
and Gibbons and its importance to the history of music is both
revelatory and unorthodox.

Gould's debut recording as a harpsichordist, in performances
of the first four of Hadel's Suites for Harpsichord, was the result
of an unfortunate accident. His favorite piano was seriously
damaged while being moved into his studio on the top floor of a
Toronto, Canada department store, I've been told, and he turned
to the harpsichord while waiting for his piano to be repaired. I
hope that, now that his piano has been restored, Gould will not
abandon the harpsichord, for his performances, though
characteristically iconoclastic, are sensitive and make eminently
good musical sense.

Although the readings of the first two Suites strike one as a bit
dry on first hearing, they become more and more supple the more
one listens to them. The high point of the record for me is
Gould's contemplative and reflective performance of the famous
set of Variations in the D Minor Suite. A favorite virtuoso work
in the Baroque keyboard repertoire, Gould, through an extensive
and ingenious use of the lute stop and telling double keyboard
effects, de-emphasizes the flashy surface aspects of one of the
finest sets of variations of the Baroque era.

Bach, J. S.: Bach Organ Favorites, Vol. 5. E. Power Briggs,
Flentrop Organ, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University.
Columbia MQ 31424. (1 disc)

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra. New York Philharmonic, Pierre
Boulez, conductor. Columbia MQ 32132. (1 disc)

Bach, J. S.: The Brandenburg Concertos. Anthony Newman and
Friends. Columbia M20 31398. (2 discs)

Vivaldi: I Quatro Stagionl (The Four Seasons), Op. 8, Nos 1-4.
Finchas Zukerman, violin and conducting the English Chamber
Orchestra, Philip Ledger, harpsichord continuo. Columbia MQ
31798. (1 disc)

Several weeks ago, Pierre Bourdain, a friend of mine at
Columbia Records, sent me some of Columbia's new
quadraphonic records for review. Once I found a "quad" system
(not an easy task, since quadraphonic sound is still in its
infancy), I listened to these recordings with great interest.

Quad, like stereo, is going through its initial growing pains,
and, just as stereo in its early days was devoted to the task of
making the listener feel that the violins are in Staten Island and
the violas are in Brooklyn with the listener perched atop the
Verrazano Bridge, quad engineers are, for the moment intent, by
and large, on placing the audiophile in the middle of the orchestra
with sound coming at him from all directions.

I must admit that I do not find the effect unpleasant really,
but it is something that I don't want to live with on a regular
basis. The joy of "surround sound", as Columbia calls it, is the
sensation of sitting in a room and being conscious of the "room
sound." For this reason, I think that the true future of "Quad"
lies not in placing the listener among the instrumentalists but
rather in setting him comfortably in a seat in the center of Row H
in the auditorium.

Columbia has issued quadraphonic records of both the
"surround" and "hall ambiance" types and has been successful at
both. Of the four albums listed at the head of this article, only E.
Power Biggs' record is of the hall ambiance variety, and my
regular readers will remember that I gave this album a warm and
favorable review in its regular stereo format last fall. My opinion
remains unchanged; Biggs' are imaginative and authentic
interpretations played on the correct type of instrument and
extremely well recorded.

Of the "surround sound" issues, Boulez's interpretation of the
Bartok Concerto for Orchestra is the most impressive. I know
now why Boulez is known as the French Correction by the
members of the New York Philharmonic, The interpretation, the
playing, and the recording are as clean and sharp as the blade of a
barber's straight razor. The clarity is amazing and, quite frankly,
makes the performance almost brittle. This clarity is, evidently,
one of the hallmarks of a Boulez performance, at least a
performance of music he likes; but I confess that I prefer the only
slightly less clear and interpretively much warmer approach that
the late Fritz Reiner took in his recording (Victrola VICS - 1110).

Anthony Newman's version of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
is, to put it bluntly, somewhat of a lemon. Probably because the
musicians who played in this production came together just for
this recording and nothing else, there is a certain tentativeness
and hesitation that prevents these interpretations from reaching
the fever-pitch of most of Newman's solo records.

Despite the fact that the music is played in a highly stylish
fashion with much added ornamentation, there is no spontaneity
to speak of, indicating that many of these players are simply
uncomfortable with the demands placed on them by the
requirements of playing Baroque music in a stylish fashion.

Pinchas Zukerman, on the other hand, is not particularly
concerned with the stylish performance of Baroque music, and his
recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, with the English
Chamber Orchestra has plenty of spark, flavor, and spontaneity.
Apart from some occasional anachronistic portamenti, there are
no obnoxious romanticisms pervading the disc. It's a lot of fun
and is certainly one of the best recordings of The Four Seasons
currently available.

One last word – All quad records are compatible with regular
stereo systems, and the four channel sound folds back into two
channels nicely, so quadraphonic records can be bought and
played on regular stereo system without fear of damage to the
discs.

(All of the records reviewed on these pages are available at
Back Alley Disc, 904 W. Main St., Charlottesville.–Ed.)