Howells' and Lambert's Clavichord

Another wonderful recommendation of a super-budget priced re-issue. Herbert Howells wrote his three books of clavichord pieces between 1927 and 1971.They recreate the dancelike spirit of Tudor keyboard music while paying homage to many well known English musical figures of the 20th century.

Although written for clavichord they are thankfully played by John McCabe on the piano, and avoid the almost insoluble problems of reproducing the sound of a clavichord. The concept of the works is rather similar to Elgar's Enigma Variations with its 'friends pictured within'. Although this is not profound music it is beautifully turned, evokes the style of the great Tudor composers beautifully, and has great fun gently parodying fellow musicians including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcom Arnold, Julian Bream, Edmund Rubbra, Gerald Finzi and William Walton.

Howells' and Lambert's Clavichord is perfect late night listening, and is a must both for fans of the great Tudor composers and of 20th century English music. I bought it when it was first released on Hyperion, and it has now been re-issued on their super-budget Helios label (catalogue number CDH55152) for round £5 ($9 US) - unmissable. Audio samples can be found on Hyperion's website.

If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Elgar's other enigma
Image credit - Double-Fretted clavichord, anonymous.Germany, c.1770 from Russell Collection of EarlyKeyboard Instruments. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Anonymous said…
An intriguing recording ... thanks for pointing it out.

"...thankfully played by John McCabe on the piano, and avoid the almost insoluble problems of reproducing the sound of a clavichord. "

I'm not at all sure about this. For example, the beginning of the Pavane posted seems to me to cry out for the sound of a clavichord, particularly for the vibrato effect that can be achieved. If that's representative at all, then it seems as though the composer had the specific sound of the clavichord in his mind's ear as he wrote.

I'd be curious to know what's "insoluble" about recording a clavichord, in your mind. I have a few recordings of clavichord, and while I like the sound on some better than others, none are what I'd call a disaster. The recorded sound can of course get ugly if you crank up the volume too much, but that's not a fault of the recording.
12:47 pm
Pliable said…
Scott, thanks for your useful comments.

Producers have an annoying habit of mixing clavichord and harpsichord on the same CD, I find this always results in the clavichord sounding the aural poor relation.

But if we leave that on one side I have spent a fair amount of time recently listening to Chistopher Hogwood's 'Secret Bach' played on clavichord on the Metronome label.It is not just the lower sound levels, the tonal range sounds compressed as well as the dynamics. Maybe this is just an unfortunate example, maybe it's because the works on the CD are familiar from harpsichord originals, but I have yet to listen to the disc with pleasure as opposed to interest.

Other reader comments are welcome, nominations please for examples of good recordings of clavichords.
1:54 pm
Pliable said…
Guthry, production credits for The Secret Bach (Metronome CD 1056) are:

Producer - Tim Smithies
Engineer - Leigh Jemison
Recording venue - Newnham College, Cambridge and Challow Park, Berkshire

I guess the recording venues didn't help, but aren't clavichords (even historic ones) portable?
8:15 am
Anonymous said…
Pliable said ...

"Producers have an annoying habit of mixing clavichord and harpsichord on the same CD, I find this always results in the clavichord sounding the aural poor relation."

Ah, now you'll get no argument from me on this point. Examples would be a couple of cd's in the Hanssler Bach series.

I haven't heard Hogwood's recording. My favourite clavichord **sound** of the few I have is on a L'Oiseau-Lyre LP (big black round thing with a small hole in the middle) of Froberger with Thurston Dart. The overall sound strikes my ear as being (for lack of a better word) unforced. Dart makes effective use of vibrato, which is a very interesting effect, and almost startling when you first hear it.

I suppose that one root cause could be lack of recording experience. Has any producer ever sighed, "Not **another** clavichord recording..."?
2:23 pm
Anonymous said…
Re the Froberger I mentioned - Amazon has no mention of it, but a bunch of Dart (and other) clavichord recordings are distributed or reissued by the British ... don't get ahead of me here ... by the British Clavichord Society. See http://www.bcs.nildram.co.uk/bcsbooks.htm
3:22 pm
Anonymous said…
Well, I had to order the recording after the enthusiastic recommendation. It arrived yesterday, and it's a gem.

I do have to admit that I'd like to hear many of the pieces on a clavichord, however ... it sounds to me as though Howells was being quite instrument-specific in many cases.
11:26 pm
zeusantony said…
The only location silent enough that I know about is St George's Queen Square Bristol or whatever they call it now since the acoustic was ruined. The Lotto money is not always used wisely. The triple (I think) glazing and the wide air gaps really do work to exclude extraneous noises. BBC achieved a really good job here for a change.
2:53 pm
zeusantony said…
I have just remembered that the BBC Bristol classical music producer was Jillian White. Her name had slipped my memory but whilst recording at St George's I had many conversations with her. It was her I believe who was responsible for the soundproofing which was so successful. In those days the acoustic of the building was perfect for lieder and chamber recording. A thoroughly nice and professional person. Radio 3 Music output was excellent under her control. Whiteladies BBC was a fine building no longer used as intended. Dumbing down indeed throughout The Corporation.
4:15 pm
Post a Comment

Recent popular posts

All aboard the Martinu bandwagon

Image
Depressing, but predictable, to see the mainstream media scrambling aboard the Bohuslav Martinů bandwagon as soon as BBC Radio 3 announces a cycle of his superb symphonies . Equally depressing, but a sign of the times, to see the Independent publishing an appreciation of the composer's symphonies by a writer who confesses elsewhere to never having heard a single note of them. As Norman Lebrecht famously wrote in the Evening Standard back in 2006: ‘... until bloggers deliver hard facts … paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town’. Sadly the hard facts now show that Norman is no longer at the Evening Standard , and, as from next Monday, the Evening Standard will no longer be a paid for newspaper . But you can find pre-bandwagon appreciations of Martinů here and here . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of
Read more

Soundtrack for a porn movie

Image
"No, you have not landed on Slipped Disc by mistake. Respected electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze tells the story himself.  The origins of " Body Love " are quite funny. I received a call from a movie producer named Manfred Menz and I wound up becoming his principal composer for a period of time. Amongst others, I composed the "Barracuda" soundtrack for him [1978, previously unreleased on album]. This led to a friendship which lasts till today. Menz now lives in Malibu, California where I visited him a couple of years ago. Anyway, this guy calls me and asks if I would compose the score to a porn movie. I said: "Porn? Nah, I don't do that kind of thing".  As it turned out, the director of the movie, Lasse Braun, had already shot it and had used my albums " Timewind " [1975] and " Moondawn " [1976] as a kind of "working soundtrack". This was obvious because the couples in the film were moving in time to my gro
Read more

Whatever happened to the long tail of composers?

Image
Reader Antoine Leboyer writes to point out that the New York Philharmonic has made its programme archive available online and that the archive shows how past programmes were far more varied than those played today. Here are just some of the composers that Antoine highlights from past concerts by the orchestra: Siniaglia, Busoni, Bosi, Chadwick, Stanford, Loeffler, McDowell, Hadley, Goldmark, Pfitzner, Enesco, Vieuxtemps and Grétry. Antoine also remarks on how Webern's music has virtually disappeared from New York concerts in recent years. One of the many confidence tricks of the digital era is how a long tail of cultural riches was promised , but a short head immaculately coiffed by audience whoring celebrities was actually delivered. I suggest that one of the key search criteria for the New York Philharmonic's new music director should be a passion for giving audiences permission to like unfamiliar music . Graphic is grabbed from the New York Philarmonic archive lan
Read more

Master musician who experienced the pain of genius

Image
On that sleeve for his 1985 recording of the Goldberg Variations , Scott Ross is seen standing in the grounds of Château d'Assas in Languedoc. It was here that many of the harpsichordist's great recordings were made. Then, as today, the château dwelt in the twilight zone between grandeur and dereliction, and thirty years ago the recording sessions were regularly interrupted by the sound of rats scurrying across the floor. Scott Ross was born in Pittsburgh in 1951, and moved to France with his mother following the death of his father in 1964. He studied at the conservatoires in Nice and Paris, and first came to Château d'Assas in 1969 to give music lessons to the grandson of its owner Mme. Simone Demangel . When an early music academy was established at the Château d'Assas, Scott Ross gave masterclasses and became a frequent visitor. At first he stayed in a room in one of the towers, but from 1983 he rented a small house across the road from the château. The photos b
Read more

Albert Baez, scientist, pacifist and parent

Image
Albert Baez (left) has died age 94. A remarkable scientist and pacifist, he was also father of folk singers Joan Baez and Mimi Fariña . Follow this link to the San Francisco Chronicle for an excellent celebration of a remarkable life. Now read why we aren't marching in the streets anymore. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Read more

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

Image
Wilhelm Furtwängler was born on 25th January 1886. He was Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1923 to his death in 1954, and held this position for the twelve years that Hitler was in power. In January 1945 he was conducting in Vienna, and fled from there to Switzerland where he remained until the Battle of Berlin ended in the defeat of the Nazis. The musicians of his orchestra remained in Berlin during its darkest hour. Here is their story: On 28th March 1945 the Russian forces commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov were just twenty miles to the east of Berlin. A month previously Albert Speer had been replaced as Nazi armaments minister after trying to persuade Hitler that defeat was inevitable. Speer now turned his energies to preventing the musicians of his adored Berlin Philharmonic from perishing in the inevitable final battle. Reich Commisioner Dr Joseph Goebells, who was in charge of the defence of Berlin, had ordered the entire orchestra to be drafted into the Vol
Read more

Is syncretic music the future?

Image
Western classical music's search for a new more inclusive paradigm has led it to world music. Many, including Philip Glass , leading critics and this blog , have said the world music is the future. But so many east meets west project sound like awkward forced marriages . Yet beyond world music the path leads onwards towards a destination which may be a mirage or may be the future. Syncretism is the process of reconciling contrary beliefs and involves melding practices of differing schools of thought. Syncretic music has been around for many centuries, notably in the blend of the three monotheistic religions in Moorish Spain, as captured by Jordi Savall and many others . The Middle East is also home to musical syncreticism and the recent budget re-release of Sister Marie Keyrouz and L'Ensemble de la Paix performing Hymns from Lebanon , which sets Christian texts in Arabic using early Eastern music scales is an excellent example. More recently French gypsy musician Titi Robin
Read more

Classical music has a lot to learn

Image
In June and July 1945 Yehudi Menuhin performed at camps for “displaced persons” – Holocaust survivors – including outside where the demolished Bergen-Belsen concentration camp had stood. He was deeply shocked by what he saw; yet in 1947 he returned to Germany to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the recently de-Nazified Wilhelm Furtwängler. Menuhin was the first Jewish musician to perform in post-World War II Germany, explaining that he did so in order to support the rehabilitation of German music and to help heal the spirit of the German people.  My header photo shows Menuhin playing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in 1966 with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by the  now fashionably-reviled Herbert von Karan. The Jerusalem Cinematheque - Israel Film Archive describes that collaboration as an example of how "how music can still contribute to reconciliation today". Coincidentally, or possibly not, both Menuhin and Karajan were yoga practitioners. Menu
Read more

Classical music should exploit its healing power

Image
Classical music cannot stand still; so that means it must find new audiences. Western classical music has evolved into a highly dualist art form with clearly demarcated boundaries around its core offering of the orchestral and operatic repertoire. There is little debate that this repertoire must - and will - remain central to the art form. But it can be argued that to open up new markets the current watertight boundaries around that core offering must become porous. An example of a blurring of these boundaries would be an entry into the mind, body and spirit market; a market which a post here in 2011 pointed out was then worth around $11 billion annually in the US, compared with $200 million for classical album sales. It is tempting to dismiss the mind, body and spirit market opportunity as no more than 'Mozart for meditation' and 'Gregorian Chant for the soul', but that would be a mistake. As my earlier post noted , the spiritual dimension is found in many of cl
Read more

I am a camera - Berlin 1973

Image
I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed. Those three sentences make up the second paragraph of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Diary, which is dated autumn 1930. The four photographs were taken by me during my first visit to Berlin in 1973, at the height of the cold war - see Final approach to Berlin . They were taken on black & white film using an Olympus Pen S 35mm camera. They were then developed, carefully printed, fixed and mislaid during one of our numerous house moves. I found them a few weeks ago at the bottom of a drawer, and they have never been published before. The header photo was taken close to the notorious Spree River crossing point. It shows the memorials to those who were shot while attempting to swim the river and escape to the West. The two memori
Read more