Following up on her 1998 award-winning recording of CPE Bach sonatas, Carole Cerasi has turned, in her latest release, to that ultimate personal and rarefied musical instrument, the clavichord, to present a recital of profound musical utterances that epitomise the progressive musical style, Empfindsamkeit or 'sensitive style', so beloved of CPE Bach. Opening with one of his most astonishing works, the Fantasie in F sharp minor, she aims to illuminate this particularly expressive style, finding its manifestation in unusual corners of mainstream repertoire and placing contemporary composers in revealing context. Carole Cerasi had the great privilege to have access to the Hoffman clavichord of 1784 housed at Hatchlands Park, which has never before been recorded for commercial release.
Historical keyboardist Carole Cerasi has an unusual background: Sephardic, Turkish, Swedish, and British, with French as her first language. Her Haydn readings here are just about as distinctive. They are challenging indeed, and rewarding as well. The cover bills the album as a study of Haydn and the art of variation, but that's only half the story. The other half is an entirely individual attempt to reimagine Haydn's sound world. It's based on the idea that that sound world was an intimate one that Haydn created his keyboard music, especially, for the rooms of a palace rather than for any kind of a concert hall at all.
The sound of plucked-string keyboard instruments, overtone-rich and complex, sometimes brilliant but rarely imposing, is one of the more distinctive and delightful artifacts of the Renaissance and Baroque, and if you enjoy the ringing resonance and sharply defined articulation of harpsichord and virginals, you'll find much pleasure in these performances of keyboard works of 17th-century English composer Thomas Tomkins.