French Harpsichord Music

Those who've heard Masaaki Suzuki's patient, reflective journey through Bach's Partitas will find similar traits in his recordings of the French Suites. At first the breathing spaces and tiny caesuras in the Allemandes and Sarabandes strike a precious pose. Listen again, though, and you realize that Suzuki is phrasing from a singer's perspective, undoubtedly influenced by his experience conducting the Bach Passions and Cantatas.

This collection of baroque hurdy-gurdy music represents, in a way, that instrument's comeback after a century of neglect and scorn (although, one presumes, that back then the scorn was at least being heaped upon the actual hurdy-gurdy, and not the glorified music box that has usurped its name in the current popular imagination). In the medieval period, the hurdy-gurdy was depicted as being played by angels as the appropriate accompaniment to the singing of the Psalms. However, its association with peasants (not to mention the limited range of the instrument in the pre-baroque era) tainted its musical reputation considerably. Relegated to an attention-getting device of blind beggars, the hurdy-gurdy was a solidly lower class instrument.

Christopher Hogwood, gifted and energetic in so many musical spheres, brings his considerable experience and intelligence to bear on Bach's 'French Suites'. To the usual six he adds two, BWV818a in A minor and BWV819 (plus 819a) in E flat, which appear with the six in a number of contemporary manuscripts.

This double-album budget set collects Bach recordings made by French harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï in 1997 and 1998, about halfway between his two celebrated versions of the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. If you like the engineering – close-up and intense, but not oversaturated with ambient noise – these are excellent picks for some of Bach's lesser-known early keyboard pieces. The star attraction is very strong as well: the extreme Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903, comes out spectacularly on Hantaï's harpsichord, a copy by Dutch builder Joel Katzman of a Flemish Ruckers instrument of the 17th century.

If Italy has Frescobaldi and Germany has Froberger, France has Louis Couperin. The name Louis Couperin has now moved beyond the shadow of François Couperin and has become synonymous with the 17th-century French clavesin school. It contains the essence of the clavesin art of the era of Louis XIV, the Sun King, including the barless preludes that enjoy a floating freedom, the grandiose chaconne and pavane, and the moving funeral for Monsieur Blancross.

The Japanese harpsichordist and harpist, Marie Nishiyama, began studying piano at age 3 In 1992 she graduated from the piano department of Tokyo Music University with piano soloist diploma, and in 1994 also received her master's degree in harpsichord there. She studied under Yoshio Watanabe (harpsichord) and Yoshiko Ueda (organ).