Henry Purcell's Harpsichord Suite #2 in Gm

[JoelvanLennep]

I really admire the way you linger over the expressive resources of the alman - lovely! I quite disagree w/ ahgblopes' point about tempi, btw, but am still trying to get around the use of the buff stop. It's not a historical question but an aesthetic one. Thanks for posting - much appreciated.

[uberari]

i kept going back to the first movement. its simply amazing.

[LULLYxoxo]

I love henry purcell !!!!!

[musaispiratrice111]

my god

[lichtbroeder]

I know little about the technical conversations being had here, but do know that I love Purcell's music and am grateful that he lived. When we play - or listen, we ultimately transcend the intellectual and become one with the music. My goal anyways, and I've achieved that here through your playing. Thank you!

[mrmolinodelahoz]

How similar in texture and polyphony is Purcell to Scarlatti in this particular piece.

Purcell is only more limited in his use of dissonance and varied tonalities.

[maxwellsteer]

Good point, but I would submit the similarity begins (& largely ends) with 2 adventurous minds. Given a separation of 50 years & a whole continent, their similarity lies more in their attraction to colour - chromaticism. P's influences were french, his kbd writing undemanding & his dissonance always motivated by harmonic context & the choral tradition of melodic part writing. While S thought & wrote exclusively for a (much-extended) keyboard within an Italo-Spanish cultural context.

[ahgblopes]

Good performance, but i preefer with the repetitions .. And yout style is a bit ortodox for this pieces. I also think you played all the movmnts (except almand) so fast (and the saraband much more faster than normal). But, for a "live concert" this was very good

[maxwellsteer]

Most of the repeats are included. It's my personal view that in music other than Bach, where the classicism of the architecture makes it paramount, it's not always desirable to play all repeats.

From my study of the period I would say that English sarabandes were not the 'slow movement' they became on the continent. I think today we still carry the memory of early 20thC pianists' ultra-romantic attempts to slow the pace of sarabandes to one which the 17/18thC would not have recognised.

[grantco1313]

I guess that would definitely qualify as a "personal view" :-) Personally I'd say that neither WE nor Bach himself would probably separate him from the rest of all baroque composers to think HIS repeats necessary but no one else's were....

[3cplantin]

I love this suite. Beautifully played! Thanks for posting, MW.