Harpsichord Recital
Friday, March 16, 2018, 7:30pm: Celebrating the Early Keyboard
Reed College, Portland
Close to 50 harpsichord aficionados, students, and mavens descended upon Reed College’s Performing Arts Building to experience what was to be an inspiring and impressive solo harpsichord recital by internationally acclaimed early keyboard artist Elisabeth Wright. Elisabeth is a Professor at the Historical Performance Institute of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington and has performed around the world. She had an appealing ease at the instrument and with the audience, and it was thrilling to witness great artistry by one of premier early keyboard musicians in the US.
She also is a Portland native, which is a nice bonus.
The program was split into two halves, with a seemingly purposeful division of styles. The first half was made up of 17th century Italian music by Frescobaldi and the remainder was devoted to 16th century Spanish music by the likes of Cabezón and Cabanilles, among others. At the intermission folks raved about the glorious sounds that came out of the 1690 Grimaldi Italian harpsichord replica built by Owen Daly; most everyone was quite taken with the Spanish music.
The second half of the program consisted of 17th French music and ended with some Bach. This music was played on Reed’s Franco-Fleminsh Double Harpsichord built by Ken Bakeman. Both French pieces were from the Bauyn MS, including the lovely Louis Couperin Suite en Re majeur and an anonymous setting of a passacaille from Luigi Rossi’s opera, Orfeo. The Bach Fantasia and Fugue in a minor captivated us all and was a great way to end the program; Elisabeth did not play an encore but did receive extended applause from the enthusiastic audience.
Here is the printed program for that event.
Basso Continuo Workshop
Saturday, March 17, 2018, 10:00am-noon: Celebrating the Early Keyboard: Continuo Workshop
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland
Elisabeth also taught a basso continuo workshop to over 20 interested keyboard players; the session was open to both organists and harpsichordists. Three individuals played – two organists and one harpsichordist (who has transitioned over from piano). The workshop itself took place in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s chancel; prior to that for about 30 minutes there was a meet and greet over coffee and pastries, which was a nice way to start the morning’s activity. Many thanks to Trinity’s staff for providing these refreshments.
Elisabeth lectured for about 40 minutes and then it was on to the applied part of the workshop. The instrument was generously loaned to us by Seattle builder David Calhoun for this occasion. Music that was workshopped included some organ pieces by Purcell, a recitative and aria from Handel’s Messiah, and a Corelli violin sonata. Elisabeth was kind enough to go over the allotted time and work with the third and final student. People got a lot out of it and had a great time learning from Elisabeth.
All in all, it was a wonderful couple of days of music and music making. We thank Elisabeth for traveling to Portland and sharing her beautiful and inspiring performing and teaching.