[Neal]

Although I can easily love Bach played on piano, I don't believe there is a single baroque solo keyboard composition that works best on piano. However, it's a good thing that those who find the harpsichord problematic have the trusty piano to maximize their listening pleasure.

 

[starthrower]

None of it translates well to the piano. The music sounds best on the instrument it was intended for.

I don't believe that. A lot of baroque, and other keyboard music sounds great on guitar, as well as piano.

 

[Mandryka]

Although I can easily love Bach played on piano, I don't believe there is a single baroque solo keyboard composition that works best on piano.

Scarlatti K 544 maybe, and possibly k 481.

 

[Mandryka]

None of it translates well to the piano. The music sounds best on the instrument it was intended for.

Some of it may have been intended for piano.

 

[TwoFlutesOneTrumpet]

Although I can easily love Bach played on piano, I don't believe there is a single baroque solo keyboard composition that works best on piano. However, it's a good thing that those who find the harpsichord problematic have the trusty piano to maximize their listening pleasure.

You are right. There isn't a single baroque solo keyboard composition that works best on piano. They ALL work best on piano.

 

[Neal]

Can we at least agree that the artistry of the performer is more important than the instrument used?

 

[TwoFlutesOneTrumpet]

Can we at least agree that the artistry of the performer is more important than the instrument used?

I can't. I do not like the sound of the harpsichord and music performed on it loses much of its appeal to me. It's like listening to your favorite aria in Donald Duck's voice.

Now of course the artistry of the performer is hugely important but luckily we have an abundance of superbly talented pianists who choose to play Bach.

 

[tdc]

I enjoy both piano and harpsichord for most Baroque solo keyboard works, for concertos or orchestral music featuring keyboard I think they sound much better with the harpsichord. Frankly I'll never understand some members aversion to the sound of this instrument.

To each their own.

 

[Guest]

To each their own,I second that.

 

[bioluminescentsquid]

Harpsichord, for me (but I listen to a lot of Gould!). Although most Bach transfers quite well to piano, I could never think of playing things like Forqueray on a piano - I would miss the huge, transparent bass of a harpsichord. But surprisingly, Sweelinck does remarkably well!

Most of the time, harpsichords have more "personality," so to say - while most Steinways and Bosens and Yamahas are fashioned more or less alike (I wouldn't be able to tell them apart just by sound on CD), a 1646 Couchet is quite different from a 1700 Grimaldi, which is also very different from a 1734 Vater. I like the variety of shapes and sizes harpsichords comes in, and the corresponding variety of timbres, rather than the "one-size-fits-all" piano.

Some other differences: of course dynamics can't be made on harpsichord, so performers rely on "fluid" phrasing rather than dynamics, and it takes some time for me, someone who grew up listening to early music on harpsichords, to adapt to dynamics rather than rubato on a piano (like the surprise I felt initially when listening to Schiff's Bach on concertzender).

But I like this analogy: imagine a precious piece of artwork - say, the Ghent altarpiece. Playing Bach's partitas on harpsichord is like admiring the altarpiece in situ inside the Gothic church, carved stone sculptures and all - it's the way the builders intended it to be displayed, "in context" with everything else beside it in the church. You might get distracted by everything else, but there's a quaint sort of charm to it, and you're more looking for the overall effect.

Playing Bach's partitas on a piano is like moving it to a nice, whitewashed, glass-encased display gallery (picture not best example). The art is taken out of context and put in a "modern" one, which is significantly less distracting but might miss the overall effect or create a different one (not necessarily bad!).

So, to quote Traverso, "to each their own!"

 

[premont]

Scarlatti K 544 maybe, and possibly k 481.

Some of it may have been intended for piano.

But just as much as this is true, the music was not intended for modern Steinway and sons, but for early fortepiano, an instrument with quite another sound and other properties than the Steinway. However it can not be denied, that some of Scarlattis sonatas sound equally well on fortepiano as on harpsichord. But this does not imply, that they sound well on Steinway.

 

[premont]

I have yet to hear a baroque piece that didn't sound better to me on the piano! I do enjoy well-recorded harpsichord from a purely audiophile perspective, though.

I have yet to hear a baroque piece, that didn't sound better to me on the harpsichord. But I do enjoy well-recorded Steinway from a purely audiophile perspective, though.

 

[Mandryka]

But just as much as this is true, the music was not intended for modern Steinway and sons, but for early fortepiano, an instrument with quite another sound and other properties than the Steinway. However it can not be denied, that some of Scarlattis sonatas sound equally well on fortepiano as on harpsichord. But this does not imply, that they sound well on Steinway.

-------

This is true.

 

[Mandryka]

But just as much as this is true, the music was not intended for modern Steinway and sons, but for early fortepiano, an instrument with quite another sound and other properties than the Steinway. However it can not be denied, that some of Scarlattis sonatas sound equally well on fortepiano as on harpsichord. But this does not imply, that they sound well on Steinway.

This is true. I was thinking of the sort of piano that Enrico Baiano uses.

 

[hpowders]

I dislike all baroque keyboard music on piano because to me it sounds horrible.

Strictly a harpsichord guy.

However if someone put a gun to my head, and I had to recommend baroque piano, otherwise I would be killed, I would say the music that sounds least offensive to these ears (still mildly horrible!) would be the Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatas in the right hands, such as the one's that belonged to Horowitz.

Take the gun away and I'm back to preaching that Scarlatti sounds best on harpsichord.

 

[premont]

I dislike all baroque keyboard music on piano because to me it sounds horrible.

Yes, and note that the initiator of this thread called it:

Baroque keyboard music that translates best on piano.

This word "translates" says it all.

 

[hpowders]

Yes, and note that the initiator of this thread called it:

Baroque keyboard music that translates best on piano.

This word "translates" says it all.

Translates best: Probably Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatas played crisply and without pedal. The use of the pedal doesn't translate well to baroque keyboard works. Nothing turns me off more.

 

[starthrower]

The instrument is only a vehicle for musical performance and expression. But I bet if Bach and Scarlatti were alive today and they were given a beautiful Steinway piano, they'd play it a hell of alot more than those 18th century relics.

 

[TwoFlutesOneTrumpet]

The instrument is only a vehicle for musical performance and expression. But I bet if Bach and Scarlatti were alive today and they were given a beautiful Steinway piano, they'd play it a hell of alot more than those 18th century relics.

Well, what vehicle you choose does matter. Try taking a long trip in this car if you don't think so

 

[starthrower]

Well, what vehicle you choose does matter. Try taking a long trip in this car if you don't think so

View attachment 91525

Yeah, that was my point. I did mention a Steinway piano compared to a 300 hundred year old keyboard.