Italian Concerto
Harpsichord music by
JS Bach
Deux-Elles DXL917
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CD of the Week, Observer Review, 2001
"Beecham
may have likened the sound of the harpsichord to a skeleton copulating on
a tin roof but 200 years earlier, Bach had no alternative. This collection
of Italian-inspired forms and styles, from the early Chromatic Fantasy and
Fugue to the great Italian Concerto spans Bach's Cothen and Leipzip
periods. Charlston plays with flair and naturally expressive timing and,
as occasioned in the early Aria Variata BWV 989, with touching serenity.
With a recording that finely captures the instrument's bite while avoiding
thundering mechanical noise, even Beecham might have approved."
Edward Bhesania
Gramophone
March 2002
Don't
be taken aback by so much rubato because it is legitimate. The treatises
of Diruta, Quantz, Mattheson and Walther (Bach's cousin) show that
line-shaping, through the inflection of phrases, was considered important;
and these writings have led musicologist Peter le Huray to believe that
the result was 'even more subtle and instinctive perhaps than Chopin's
much praised rhythmic flexibility. Charlston
puts this knowledge to discerning use. ,for example of his sensibility is
the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue where virtuoso pyrotechnics are
eschewed. The malleable line of the Fantasia, the circumspect treatment of
the chords (2'01" to 3'16") that Bach ahich Bach wanted
arpeggiated according to the performer's taste, both point to a thoughtful
imagination that extends to a lucid expose of the Fugue; and to an equally
lucid expose of the other major work, the Italian Concerto, There
are surprises here too - the moderately
paced first movement, and
a presto finale
that
is no mere romp. Perhaps Charlston could have used his two-manual
instrument (1998 copy of a 1624 Ruckers) to bring out the concerto-like
contrasts more sharply; but the bass, notably in the slow movement, is
strongly characterised so the tensions inherent in the harmonic
progressions are clearly exposed. The
sound is clean but confined, and the recorded level is too high. There is
also one unexpected lapse - a rather mechanical performance of BWV 906.
Otherwise, Charlston offers an outstanding recital. Of course, anything
less from a professor at London's Royal Academy of Music would have been
most disappointing. Nalen
Anthoni
Early
Music Review, DEC 2001
These are fine, well-judged Bach performances. Terence Charlston is
never showy in an egotistic or self-indulgent way; instead, I was
captivated by his adroit control of the music's momentum. He gives cogent
shape to the dramatic gestures of the Toccata in D and the Chromatic Fantasia &
Fugue. His account of the Italian Concerto exudes energy but avoids the
danger of sounding flighty. The disc also includes a few lesser-known
pieces such as the galant Fantasia in C minor BWV 906 and the attractive
Prelude & Fughetta in G major BWV 902. The Ruckers copy has a lovely
sound and is recorded well. Recommended.
Stephen Rose
Early
Music Review Feb, 2002
"This
is Terence Charlston's second recording of Sebastian Bach's solo keyboard
music for Deux-Elles, and to me it has formed a highly impressive
introduction on CD. This is no easy programme, for in it the famous
masterpieces which challenge any good player are heard beside less
attention-seeking works like the fine, early, multi-sectional Toccata in
D, BWV 912, the Aria Variata 'in the Italian style' (but the French
manner) and the Prelude and Fughetta in G, BWV 902. All are very musically
shaped and delivered by one who obviously knows well how to make the best
use of a realy sensitively-weighted actioned and amplified harpsichord
copy. I have been drawn by the completely persuasive playing of the music
into placing it immediately among my most favoured Bach harpsichord
discs."
Stephen Daw
Classical
London
[Peter
Grahame Woolf compares Terence Charlston's harpsichord CD release on
Deux-Elles (DXL1017) with a recent offering from Angela Hewitt (piano)]
Bach's
most popular work for solo keyboard scores over fifty entries in the
Classical Catalogue and these two, received recently, offer a fascinating
evening's listening played in tandem. Johann Sebastian was sparing with
performance instructions, so there is ample scope for individual
interpretation; both are recommendable.
Terence
Charlston explains how the Italian musical style pervades Bach's keyboard
works, even though distant travel was impossible for him and a thirst for
music of other lands had to be satisfied through contact with visiting
musicians and by studying scores. Charlston inaugurated the Historical
Practice course as Head of Early Music in the Royal Academy of Music, and
he knows everything about how to make his chosen instrument expressive, by
rhythmic variety and subtle agogic treatment of key moments, even though
the harpsichord lacks the piano's sustaining pedal, or the 'swell' of
later organs. He is equally an emotional and a scholarly musician, and his
playing will convince some collectors who prefer their Bach on the piano.
The Ruckers/Howarth harpsichord, closely recorded, is welcome in the
living room, with a wealth of rich jangly tone colour captured under the
lid. Angela Hewitt, the leading Bach pianist of today, is unexpectedly the
cooler of the two in the Italian Concerto's slow movement, and far swifter
in the others. Her colouration throughout her delectable CD is delightful,
but you may begin to find, as I did, that her discreet surges of
'crescendo' feel slightly gratuitous oft repeated.
There
is no overlap of other works and both programmes offer ample variety (to
my taste, more attractive than, say, Trevor Pinnock's deservedly
award-winning Six Partitas on Hanssler Bachakademie Edn.115). Charlston
has the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, and the highly ornamented Aria which
became famous as the theme of the Goldberg Variations, and both programmes
contain rarer music.
CD
Review FEB 2002
Sir
Thomas Beecham is quoted as disliking Bach for his Protestant
counterpoint. (He evidently didn't mind the no more nor less Protestant
counterpoint of his beloved Handel.) In these four recordings counterpoint
is everywhere, leaving the listener - this listener, at any rate -
lost
in renewed admiration for Bach's sheer wizardry in using his technical
skills as the means to a satisfying artistic end. Terence
Charlston plays a harpsichord by Andrew Garlick after Ruckers. His recital
covers much of Bach's working life, from pieces written in his twenties up
to Part II of the ClavierUbung,-published
in 1735 when Bach was fifty. The first piece is the misleadingly
entitled Toccata in D, BWV 912, one of several multi-sectional keyboard
works probably dating from Bach's tiI)Je in Arnstadt or Muhlhausen. It is
followed by the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903, and the Aria
variata, BWV 989. Charlston is equally alive to the eccentricities of the
fantasia as to the formality of the fugue; and it is not his fault if the
variations rather outstay their welcome. There
is a want of poignancy in the closing bars of the Andante in the Italian
Concerto, and some might find Charlston's rubato in the Presto a little
overdone, but the first movement is as exhilarating as anyone could wish.
The Aria that later became the basis of the Goldberg Variations is a
beautiful foretaste of the recording that I very much hope is to come. Of
the remaining pieces, the Prelude in C minor for lute, BWV 999, with its
ostinato bass, is appropriately played on a lutestop. The Fughetta that
follows the Prelude in G, BWV 902, is better known in its incarnation as
the A flat fugue in Book 2 of the '48'. In the Fantasia in C minor, BWV
906, the end comes rather abruptly, but in all other respects this is a
breathtaking performance, bringing out to the full the 'hallmarks of
rhythmic vitality, chromatic inflection and tragic Affekt that Charlston mentions in his booklet-note. Richard
Lawrence
Early Music Today AUG 2002
Terence Charlston's all-Bach disc offers well-known (Chromatic
Fantasia, Italian Concerto) and lesser-known works (Aria variata,
Toccata in D, Fantasia in C minor and so on). Perhaps at times a
little reined in, this is nevertheless expressive and engaging playing,
particularly in the Chromatic Fantasia, the fugue of which has
great cumulative power. I am glad that Charlston cannot resist adding some
lower octaves, particularly as the Ruckers copy (by Andrew Garlick) on
which he plays has an exceptionally rich bass register. John Kitchen
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