EMS from Buck House - Sun 13th April

[ardcarp]

18th Century Season: From the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Carole Cerasi plays the 1740 Shudi harpsichord in the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

[Sorry Alps. More stuff that's not quite early enough to qualify for EMS in your book!]

[Tony Halstead]

18th Century Season: From the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Carole Cerasi plays the 1740 Shudi harpsichord in the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

[Sorry Alps. More stuff that's not quite early enough to qualify for EMS in your book!]

Carole Cerasi is not only a superb harpsichordist but also a beautiful lady.
Would that her recital were televised!

[MickyD]

And I'm sure that the location and instrument would be worth viewing, too.

[mercia]

I guess it is this instrument

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/the-first-georgians-art-monarchy-1714-1760/harpsichord-music

[ardcarp]

I've just heard the programme. This 'late' harpsichord makes a fine sound and was well-recorded, I thought. Carole Cerasi is clearly a nimble and virtuosic player. I have to say though that her style of playing (a style shared by others these days) makes me very uneasy...even queasy. She would probably call it rhythmic flexibility. I call it excessive rubato, and once you have noticed the idiosyncrasy of beginning each phrase slowly and rushing away until the next cadence, it becomes very irritating. Some players do it I suppose (Egarr is another such) because the harpsichord cannot be given expression by touch. But they are not content with ornamentation and phrasing. They have to do this business which gives me a feeling (literally) of sea-sickness, though I am never, never sick at sea. (Ho, ho.) There is certainly some room for bending tempo in runny toccata-like passages such as at the end of the Babell, but not all the time. Handel and Scarlatti, for the most part, just don't need it.

Rant over. Interesting programme, location and presentation.