Rafael Puyana, harpsichordist, has died

[Guest]

The great Columbian harpsichordist Rafael Puyana has died in Paris aged 81.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Puyana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NykqsyVDoKo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSj24ge6sew

[Gordon]

Wot, another one gone!! Someone needs to have a word with that reaper fellow, is he on a bonus or something! Puyana's Mercury 1962/4 disc of various pieces from a wide range of composers is well worth having, issued at a time when there wasn't much harpsichord about.

All this talk of death reminds me of Klemperer's comment when informed that the last great conductor of his era but him had died. He said "yes, it has been a good season hasn't it"!! The asked what he was going to do about it he said he'd put up his fees!!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Can someone assist my ignorance on Puyana's attitude to authentic instruments?

I was aware of him via Gramophone from the early 70s onwards but never heard him or bought his discs. Though it wasn't a big issue for me either way, I thought of him as a slightly old-fashioned post-Landowska sort of player on modern instruments who would have not a lot to do with original instruments. I was therefore surprised by his 1990 'Fandango' disc on Oiseau-Lyre where he plays four different harpsichords, 2 C18 beasties and 2 modern reproductions of such instruments.

Was I wrong all the time and P was a true HIP performer from way back, or did he experience a late conversion??

[Tony Halstead]

About 25 years ago I heard him play a very fine recital at the Wigmore Hall on 3 or 4 'authentic' or authentic-style harpsichords; not a Goble, Neupert, Pleyel or 'Ammer' ( heaven help us) in sight!
I had first met him when I was playing in the orchestra on a Mediterranean cruise ship nearly 40 years ago. He was supposed to play a recital mid-week but the harpsichord on the ship was a wretched thing called 'Ammer', a very bad copy of an 8-pedalled Neupert, in such poor physical shape that he would have been justified in cancelling off.
But no, over the course of the week he practically re-built the instrument, re-stringing it and re-quilling it ( with proper quill, not plastic or 'delrin'. His recital on that lovingly prepared, reinvigorated instrument finally took place at the end of the week and it was a wonderfully varied programme spanning well over 2 centuries of music from Byrd, Gibbons and the English virginalists to CPE Bach and Mozart, and of course including the Fandango.
I had the honour of page-turning for him ( a nerve-wracking, thankless task) and at the end he very courteously said " you are an excellent page turner"... to which I replied "thank you but why do you say that?".
he replied " You didn't make me nervous!"

R.I.P. Rafael Puyana

[amateur51]

About 25 years ago I heard him play a very fine recital at the Wigmore Hall on 3 or 4 'authentic' or authentic-style harpsichords; not a Goble, Neupert, Pleyel or 'Ammer' ( heaven help us) in sight!
I had first met him when I was playing in the orchestra on a Mediterranean cruise ship nearly 40 years ago. He was supposed to play a recital mid-week but the harpsichord on the ship was a wretched thing called 'Ammer', a very bad copy of an 8-pedalled Neupert, in such poor physical shape that he would have been justified in cancelling off.
But no, over the course of the week he practically re-built the instrument, re-stringing it and re-quilling it ( with proper quill, not plastic or 'delrin'. His recital on that lovingly prepared, reinvigorated instrument finally took place at the end of the week and it was a wonderfully varied programme spanning well over 2 centuries of music from Byrd, Gibbons and the English virginalists to CPE Bach and Mozart, and of course including the Fandango.
I had the honour of page-turning for him ( a nerve-wracking, thankless task) and at the end he very courteously said " you are an excellent page turner"... to which I replied "thank you but why do you say that?".
he replied " You didn't make me nervous!"

R.I.P. Rafael Puyana

A lovely personal insight into a remarkable man, waldhorn - many thanks indeed

[vinteuil]

Was I wrong all the time and P was a true HIP performer from way back, or did he experience a late conversion??

... certainly in the early days he was Landowskaesque in his delight in the possibilities of a 'modern' harpsichord with pedals to change registration, and in those days he revelled in the colour changes this allowed, even tho' impossible for the original composer; I had an LP of Soler which noted "Comme son illustre professeur [Landowska], il s'est fait construire par Pleyel deux grands clavecins de concert dans la sonorité desquels on reconnaîtra tout de suite le «magnifique ferraillement» célébré par Wanda Landowska." But even on such inappropriate instruments he had a great sense of style: I remember Kenneth Gilbert, a purist in many ways, speaking in terms of envy of Puyana's musical sensibility. Puyana then became completely won over by the 'authentic' in harpsichords; his Oiseau-Lyre CD of Soler and Scarlatti "Fandango" features instruments from his own collection - a 1720 anonymous single keyboard Spanish instrument, and the behemoth that is the three-manual 1740 Hass. As I recall, Kenneth Gilbert was at the auction at which Puyana acquired the Hass (at a terrifying price): outbid, Gilbert rang Puyana the next day, saying "Well, at least I was able to sleep last night... "

[amateur51]

... certainly in the early days he was Landowskaesque in his delight in the possibilities of a 'modern' harpsichord with pedals to change registration, and in those days he revelled in the colour changes this allowed, even tho' impossible for the original composer; I had an LP of Soler which noted "Comme son illustre professeur [Landowska], il s'est fait construire par Pleyel deux grands clavecins de concert dans la sonorité desquels on reconnaîtra tout de suite le «magnifique ferraillement» célébré par Wanda Landowska." But even on such inappropriate instruments he had a great sense of style: I remember Kenneth Gilbert, a purist in many ways, speaking in terms of envy of Puyana's musical sensibility. Puyana then became completely won over by the 'authentic' in harpsichords; his Oiseau-Lyre CD of Soler and Scarlatti "Fandango" features instruments from his own collection - a 1720 anonymous single keyboard Spanish instrument, and the behemoth that is the three-manual 1740 Hass. As I recall, Kenneth Gilbert was at the auction at which Puyana acquired the Hass (at a terrifying price): outbid, Gilbert rang Puyana the next day, saying "Well, at least I was able to sleep last night... "

Lovely KGilbert story, vints - many thanks