E. Power Biggs - Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor - BWV 565 - on Pedal Harpsichord

[earlykeyboards]

This is the first time I have heard it with a pedal harpsichord, awesome!

[SelanikliSuleyman]

Truly great music and truly great harpsichord playing. Ah, somebody said the harpsichord lacks the sustain of the organ. So what? Truly great music sounds great regardless especially in the hands of a great performer.

[earlykeyboards]

@SelanikliSuleyman Well put!

[EranBee]

Well played and sounds nice but, lacks the sustain and power of the pipe organ.

[quake4fanimies]

@EranBee yeah there should be more sustain

[earlykeyboards]

@EranBee The harpsichord lacks the sustain of an organ because of its anatomy.

[LusardoScalini]

Is this available in digital format yet?

[farseenart]

@LusardoScalini -- I bought my LP in 1966, in 2002 made a tape recording. In 2005, the Katrina flood destroyed my collection, but it was on a high shelf. All my other LPs and tapes were utterly destroyed, turning to paper mache in the toxic water which stood for over 3 weeks. When I eventually was allowed to return, one of the things I retrieved was the tape, which was untouched by the floodwaters. In 2011, I digitized the tape using a converter. Now I have a CD. Magnificent sonic authority!

[ruexcited]

Bravo!!!!!

[danicullenpattinson]

ohh.. chills :D

[pherstowski]

pure magic

[sslohier]

i really like this interpretation....

[ttwiligh7]

What a surprise..I have CD that he played six trio sonatas on the pedal harpsichord, but this Toccata sounds much better than that.

[kasyapa]

ttwiligh7 - find the other things he played on the challis pedal harpsi - they are all good. the passacaglia and fugue in c minor is titanic!

[Offshoreorganbuilder]

Absolutely convincing. Many thanks

[JoAnne90068]

OMG I had this album until the house burned.  So awesome!

[phillipstosberg]

I have this LP and it has always been one of my favorites! Thanks for posting this!

[WatchBlueSkies]

This is a great record !

[SturawberryChan]

Thankyouthankyouthankyou<3

I've been looking for this for years

[wbutterman]

Great performance, but the Challis instrument was -really- weird. Aluminum pin blocks, 100% plastic action and lots of very strange building techniques make these instruments, er, 'unique'. We used to call them 'HSO's or Harpsichord Shaped Objects.

[kasyapa]

wbutterman - didn't they have aluminum soundboards or some such thing, too?

[wbutterman]

@kasyapa Yes indeed - Challis made the aluminum soundboards in a locked room, alone. No one knows how he made them, but they were made of aluminum. My local music group has a Sabathil and sons harpsichord with a wood soundboard, but aluminum pin rail Basically, you tune it ONCE per season. Same way with the Challis instruments. They stayed in tune forever. Challis also used Bakelite jacks, but thats another story :)

[kasyapa]

wbutterman - challis sounds ... fascinating ... has his secret(s) been passed on to anyone?

[wbutterman]

@kasyapa Unfortunately no. Challis had very unique ideas about harpsichord building, mostly centered around how to make the instrument loud enough for concert performance. He kept to himself in his Detroit workshop, and only built 8 instruments a year. Biggs was very lucky to get one.

[kasyapa]

wbutterman - what a shame. he should have passed down his secrets.

[95bach]

this is really very good but still much better in organ

[4Topwood]

Magnificent. I had this LP way back when and have been hoping someone would post this. Thanks!

[AlexanderZographos]

what about the rest of the record? can you post them?

[guitarpick678]

always wanted to hear this piece on harpsichord, nice!

[chriswales19]

I must confess to finding this a ltitle dull. Now this is by no means a pop at the brilliant skill that was E. Power Biggs. A truly wonderful performer, and that Challis instrument & pedal is an AMAZING instrument. I blame the recording engineer. I find none of the majestic grandeur of sound comes through at all. Shame.

[manuelkatarino]

It is indeed a an Amazing Instrument and a wonderful performance, but please don´t blame the recording engineer- this is not his fault! - we have to remember that this is an original vinyl recording made in the 60s...

[chriswales19]

I think we can blame the engineer - it was culture in these days to quite literally stick the microphone inside the harpsichord, just listen to the Landowska recordings and how giant and majestic the Pleyel harpsichord sounds, when in reality its actually a very twee petit sound. But here just positioning the microphones differently would have probably created a much larger sound of the pedal board - which IS majestic, just not clear enough on this recording. I think anyway :)

[thenoblegeek]

The problem might also be the John Challis Harpsichord itself. I don't know about the specific instrument used in this recording but John experimented with materials that are unconventional when it comes to building these instruments. For example, he typically used an aluminum sound board that was laminated over either a foam material or a honeycomb structure. This soundboard was chosen to overcome the problems wood has with humidity and aging. The instruments ended up not sounding as rich.

[wbutterman]

@manuelkatarino Perhaps, but compare this recording with recordings made by Igor Kipnis in the same time period. Igor had more traditional instruments made by Rutkowski and Robinette of New York. Virtual Pascal Taskin and Henri Hemsch copies.  The Kipnis recordings are magnificent. Challis instruments are just a bit metallic and VERY VERY LOUD compared to other instruments.