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JANSMUSIC RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Frescobaldi: Keyboard Music 
Colin Booth (harpsichord & organ)
Soundboard Records SBCD201
Toccata 1 / Capriccio on La Bassa Fiammenga / Canzona 1 / Toccata 8 / Capriccio on L'Aria Or che noi rimena / Canzona 4 / Toccata 5 / Partite / Toccata 11 / Variations on L'Aria detto Balletto / Ricercar 3 / Toccata 7 / Capriccio on La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Ut

I do love this kind of repertoire, and I'm a huge fan of the harpsichord.  I remember the sole object of my desire as a teenager (aside from Michael J Fox) was a harpsichord. Like many unfulfilled desires, it settled into a lifelong admiration. I like this idea behind this CD which is to present the sort of programme that would have been played in the music room of a wealthy 16th century Italian family, so the works are divided between a harpsichord (a copy of a 16th century original) and a chamber organ (a modern instrument).

Funnily enough on reading the booklet, my initial thoughts were confirmed.  This is one of the those CDs that I didn't take to on first hearing, but further listenings have earned it huge merit. The music is virtuosic, quite surprisingly chromatic and wander through seemingly improvisatory passages, the mood and tempo varying almost phrase by phrase, and it is quite fascinating to listen to. The musical ideas just roll out one after another, as he explores first this pathway and then another. It really does feel like you are sitting listening to someone who has sat down to play a new instrument and has plucked some tunes out of thin air to improvise around.

In Colin's last recording I reviewed, the Scarlatti sonatas, I said I like the sound because it was "meaty". The word I chose to use for this sound is "raw". There is nothing subtle about the sound of this harpsichord - it is a big bold sound, and the almost homophonic effect generated by some of the more virtuosic passages (such as in Toccata 8) are quite incredible to behold. The organ has a very fluty sound with a lot of strength in the bass and it is in the pieces that Colin has chosen to play on the organ that the chromaticism really comes out, and in fact he chooses to make a feature of it, really leaning into the suspensions and ornamentations to hear the semitones and sevenths grind against each other - fantastic!