I didn't know CPE Bach composed his own set of La Folia variations as well. Stunning composition, brilliant performance, and a monster of an instrument. Bravo!
Dieses ist das beste Cembalo mit einer fantastischen Aufnahme des La Folia C.P.E Bachs von Robin Bigwood, das ich je gesehen habe. Danke fürs Mitteilen!
Beautifully played, Robin and what a majestic instrument! Equally crystalline, sonorous and thunderous. Kudos also to Jessica Zappe for the gorgeous yet restrained decoration. This harpsichord is a marvel! Can we please hear Beethoven played on this magnificent monster?
Wonderful "bon mot." Perhaps the instrument should be named the "Monstre Magnifique." Also, many people I think aren't aware of how beautiful Beethoven can sound on the harpsichord, not to mention Mozart and Haydn.
Magnificent! The perfect piece for exploiting the tonal and dynamic capabilities of that unique instrument. Of course, the playing is exceptional as well.
Imagine having to tune and regulate this instrument. I'd be too exhausted to play after that. I'm happy with my single manual Flemish with its 1x8 and 1x4 stops. I assume Robin has someone, perhaps Alan Gotto to tune it . I love the nasard and lute stops. The original Haas instrument was owned by Rafael Puyana.
It seems to be theoretically possible, then, to have an GGGGGGGG 256' @@organist1982, which gets us into the range of Richard Bobo's "Gigarackett" joke-instrument.
Awesome harpsichord. I saw a video of an original Hass harpsichord that also had 3 manuals, but it was a bit different: Whereas this one offers the option to couple the middle manual to the lower manual (as well as top to middle), that one offered the option to couple the lowest one to the middle one (and as far as I could tell, not the reverse); that other one only went down to the low G; and it sounded a little bit fuzzy, whereas this one sounds very clean. Can't find the inverted coupling, but here is an example with the slightly reduced compass at the bass end and the fuzzy sound: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6Gubohd0nO8.html Although maybe the fuzz was an artifact of the recording, because here is apparently the same instrument with a clean sound: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uSj24ge6sew.html Edit: Maybe I'm conflating the inverting coupling of the lower 2 manuals with an unusual pipe organ that did this . . . .
Probably more than anything it's a clavichord work. Or possibly piano. I don't know of many (or possibly any) Italian harpsichords that would have had the necessary range (FF to f'''). We thought the scale and scope of the writing really suited the grandeur of this instrument, and it's idiomatic for harpsichord in general.
