Sounding past
Harpsichord class with concert in Weimar and excursion to historical keyboard instruments in Hamburg
Replicas of historical keyboard instruments are the sounding medium of the harpsichord class at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. Now the students of Prof. Bernhard Klapprott will give a concert on several historically reproduced harpsichords and the clavichord of the conservatory on Monday, June 19 at 7:30 pm in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus.
There one can experience in direct comparison a Virginal after Italian building method of the 16th century, harpsichords after Italian, German and French building method of the 17th and 18th century as well as a Clavichord after central German building method (1765). In each case, appropriate works by Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach, William Byrd and François Couperin, among others, will be heard.
Directly afterwards, from June 20 to 22, the harpsichord class will take an excursion to the Beurmann Collection in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg - a veritable Mecca in the field of historical keyboard instruments. That's because this collection contains important harpsichords, virginals, clavichords and fortepianos, most of them playable, built between the 16th and 18th centuries.
"Interesting explanations of the instruments and their restoration have a horizon-expanding effect," explains Prof. Bernhard Klapprott. "Several days of trying, listening and working together in class on these sounding testimonies are important experiences for the students."
At the end, the students will give a public concert on various harpsichords and clavichords on Thursday, June 22 at 6:00 p.m. in the Beurmann Collection, making the experience of this "special cloth contact" of sounding past musically present. The oldest instrument in this concert is an anonymous Italian harpsichord from around 1540, the latest is a French harpsichord by Taskin from 1787 and a Middle German clavichord by Horn from 1788.
The class has a very special honor: this concert will be the first public concert to feature the recently restored famous harpsichord by Pascal-Joseph Taskin (Paris, 1787).
When it comes to replicas of historical keyboard instruments, the instrumental diversity lies not only in the different instrument families, but also in the regionally and epochally different construction methods. "For example, on an 18th century harpsichord of French construction, a Francois Couperin simply sounds 'smoother' and more blended, but a Johann Sebastian Bach does not speak as transparently as on one of German construction," explains Bernhard Klapprott.
In order to be able to experience these sounds approximately in their origins, the harpsichord class regularly travels to various museums such as the Beurmann Collection in Hamburg, the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg or the Bachhaus Eisenach.
[12 June 2023]