{"id":176,"date":"2011-08-04T10:01:05","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T14:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/?p=176"},"modified":"2011-08-07T09:01:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T13:01:49","slug":"day-eight-concertos-for-2-3-harpsichords-cd-1-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/?p=176","title":{"rendered":"Day Eight: Concertos For 2 & 3 Harpsichords (CD 1-8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bach<\/a>A couple of decades ago, a buddy of mine — who was into Country Rock (stuff like the Byrds, in their alt-Country Sweetheart of the Rodeo<\/em> era, and various Country artists) — joked with me about an abhorrent instrument called the pedal steel guitar. I told him I really hated that sound. He said, “Then I know what I’ll get you for Christmas; an album called Pedal Steel Greats<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

To my knowledge, such an album doesn’t exist. (Thank God!) And the joke was there’s nothing “great” about pedal steel. To me, that would be like listening to Jack Hammer Greats<\/em>. Or Fingernails On Chalkboard Greats<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So when I saw the title of today’s CD — Concertos For 2 & 3 Harpsichords<\/em> — I immediately thought of Pedal Steel Greats<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s not that this music is played badly. On the contrary, the level of musicianship is remarkable. And it’s not that Bach screwed up creating music for an instrument that epitomizes the term “A little goes a long way.” It’s that, well, a little goes a long way. And after the first concerto, I’m tired. The Harpsichord, after five or six minutes, sounds like noise. It’s almost atonal to my ears. It’s fantastic for setting a mood (albeit a Renaissance\/Baroque mood). But once that mood is set, I’m eager to explore what else that particular mood has to offer.<\/p>\n

These compositions were performed by Musica Amphion<\/a>, conducted by Pieter-Jan Belder<\/a>, a gifted, award-winning musician with an already illustrious career.<\/p>\n

Accompanying Mr. Belder (after all, these are compositions for 2 and 3 harpsichords) are Menno van Delft<\/a> and Siebe Henstra<\/a>, two equally talented harpsichordists.<\/p>\n

This recording was made in 2006. So it sounds pristine, with warmth and depth.<\/p>\n

The first concerto (for two harpsichords and strings in C major, BWV 1061) is quite good. But I like Concerto for three harpsichords and strings in D minor (BWV 1063) better. It has a powerful, percussive sound that makes it stand out from other other, more mellow, concertos. (Yeah, three harpsichords; I know what you’re thinking…Pedal Steel Greats<\/em> again. But it works. I like it. Go figure.)<\/p>\n

The compositions on this CD are:
\nBWV 1061 – 1735
\nBWV 1062 – 1735
\nBWV 1063 – 1735
\nBWV 1064 – 1735
\nBach was 50 when he composed all of the above.<\/p>\n

Makes me wonder what I’ve done with my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of decades ago, a buddy of mine — who was into Country Rock (stuff like the Byrds, in their alt-Country Sweetheart of the Rodeo era, and various Country artists) — joked with me about an abhorrent instrument called the pedal steel guitar. I told him I really hated that sound. He said, “Then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73,102,103,104,58,105,120,101,107,8,106,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.155dayswithbachandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}