I literally could not breathe throughout this. Marvellous! Really one of the best harpsichordists in the world, especially when it comes to the French baroque.
Quelle prestation magistrale! J'ai vraiment adoré! Cette rapidité et cette facilité c'est absolument formidable et magnifique! Les passages de mains sont formidables! Vraiment bravo à l'interprète!!!!
Probably the fastest of all the versions on YT - electrifying! Sempé seems totally relaxed as he plays, but his fingers are a blur at times! If you can play it this fast without making mistakes, why not? Royer clearly intended the piece to show off the player's virtuosity (and his own, of course)!
What can you say?! Skip Sempe, one of the great harpsichordists. This interpretation carries you into the very soul of the music. Tempo doesn't matter as long as the performer brings a piece to life with seemingly effortless ease. Mr Sempe has a beautiful harpsichord in an ideal acoustic, and skilled cameraman and recording engineers to complete a wonderful package. Thank you for the posting.
Such display of skill and musical dominance in the execution of this marvelous piece is a pleasureful and enchanting viewing experience. Congratulations to you!
Skip Sempé avec une exceptionnelle virtuosité illustre ce qui fait l'intérêt de cette oeuvre qui, plus que son intérêt musical, est une extraordinaire démonstration de l'originalité du clavecin par rapport aux autres intruments à clavier.
Alchemist - Over the last decades Skip Sempé has flourished as a harpsichordist, chamber musician, conductor, artistic director, teacher, coach, lecturer, scholar, and writer. He is the founder of the ensembles Capriccio Stravagante, the Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra and Capriccio Stravagante Les 24 Violons, and has served as the artistic director of the Paradizo label, the Piccola Accademia di Montisi, the Paris-based Terpsichore festival, and been an artist in residence at BOZAR in Brussels and at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. Cutting through the noise - Considered to be one of the last pioneers of the early music movement, Sempé has recovered and preserved a musical aesthetic and artistic mission that is slipping away. With over forty prizewinning recordings as a soloist and with Capriccio Stravagante, concerts worldwide, and a collection of thought-provoking essays, Memorandum XXI, he has revolutionized early music performance and challenged a dated, standardized ‘Baroque sound’. Pursuit of musical adventures - Once a student of Gustav Leonhardt, Sempé is an original seeker with a rich imagination, a musical philosopher who thinks about historical performance practice and a persuasive essayist who expresses his individual ideas on artistic history with verve. Above all, he is a musician who beguiles and astounds with his magical-sensual store of previously unheard sounds. His superb sense of harpsichord touch, finely tuned ear for achieving variation in the instrument’s sonority, and spontaneous musical personality supported by virtuosic keyboard skills has made him a coveted ‘test pilot’ for some of the finest harpsichord makers of our time. Recordings & Musicians - In 2006, he founded the Paradizo label, which has released many prizewinning recordings as well as Memorandum XXI, a collection of Skip Sempé’s essays on music and performance with five CDs. Sempé’s previous twenty recordings are all still available on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Astrée, Alpha, Teldec and Mirare labels. He is regularly invited as a guest director, and has performed with Julien Martin, Josh Cheatham, Olivier Fortin, Pierre Hantaï, Sophie Gent, Doron Sherwin, Jordi Savall and the ensembles Collegium Vocale Gent, Pygmalion, Vox Luminis, Capella Cracoviensis, Chanticleer, Les Voix Humaines, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Concert des Nations. Impact - Sempé’s solo harpsichord and ensemble performances have inspired generations of young musicians. He has served on the international harpsichord juries of Brugge, Leipzig and Rouen, and also teaches extensively, including the annual masterclasses at the Villa Medici / Académie de France à Rome. Skip Sempé is a chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
he plays this piece better than jean rondeau, although rondeau is good too, love his scarlatti piece with long hair, great film, but this piece tells me why he's a conductor
Wow!! Mr. Sempe brings out this piece's virtuosic nature to the fullest!!! Try playing this on a Grand Piano and all you'll get is cluttering noises + metacarpal syndrome!!
Haha, there's a confusion there, "scythe" in French doesn't mean the farmer's tool but a nomadic, horse-riding people (called "Scythians" in English) who are known for their ferocity in war. :D Besides, Royer ended up working for Louis XV as the "maître de musique des enfants de France" (basically teaching music to the King's children and family :D).
@@MrLoknar Oh reaaaaly? So it should be the 'ride' of the scythians! Thanks, just got this notification. And hey you never know if he was trying to be punk rock with the title ;b
You are right! I have been practising this piece on my spinet and also my piano but it just doesn't sound right. Will be getting my hands on a harpsichord to practice it on very soon!
Yup......! Tho' it must be said, listening to it's full 6:10, one begins to wonder much more forcibly than Yuja, both in the sound 'dynamic range' and double manual speed and dexterity , just what Skip's typing speed is....
I'd love to hear gospel music played on a harpsichord. The semi junk pianos of central WV mangle God's music to a point of painfulness. Harpsichords rock!
