Arnold
Dolmetsch, 1931. Photo by Herbert Lambert, Bath, England,
courtesey of Teri Noel Towe
Recordings on the Clavichord
This page is devoted to recorded excerpts from BCS-sponsored events, together with excerpts from recordings of historical significance, no longer commercially available. For other clavichord audio segments, click on links, and explore the web pages of the performers linked to us.
Historical Recordings
Arnold Dolmetsch
at the clavichord
J.S. Bach Chromatic Fantasy BWV 903
- Fantasia (1 MB)
- Harpeggiando (920 KB)
- Recitativo (2MB)
Prelude and Fugue #15 in G major, BWV 884, from Book 2 of the Well-Tempered
Clavier.
- Prelude (1.4 MB)
- Fugue (1 MB)
Click
here for a recording, made in 1954, of Erwin Bodky
playing the Aria Sebaldina with variations in F minor (8.01MB) by Johann
Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Erwin Bodky (1896-1958) began his career
in Europe. He emigrated to the United States before World War II and settled
in the Boston area, where he was active performing and promoting early
music. He was a professor of music at Brandeis University and was the
founder of the Cambridge Society for Early Music. This recording was made
on a clavichord built by Karl Maendler of Munich, which Bodky brought
with him when he came to the U.S.
József Gát was born into a Jewish family in Hungary in 1913. He studied at the Academy of Music in Budapest in the 1930s. Among his teachers were Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. He earned credentials in both composition and music teaching. In 1938 he received his final degree. By the time he graduated, Jewish legislation was in place that made it impossible for him to find suitable work. During World War II he went into hiding. Some 34 members of his extended family, including his parents and his first wife, died in concentration camps during World War II. After the war Gát taught the piano. In 1949 he was offered a position at the Academy of Music, by then renamed the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. (This is the same academy where Miklós Spányi studied in the 1980s.) In 1954 Gát published a book on piano playing that was later translated into four languages. In the 1950s he became interested in early instruments and was given a harpsichord and clavichords by the Neupert and Ammer firms. As a result he was able to introduce these instruments into Hungarian teaching and musical life. He died of a heart attack in 1967 at the age of 54. The tracks that are posted here come from a Qualiton long playing record of works in the Kenner & Liebhaber series by C.P.E. Bach. [Thanks to Eszter Fontana, daughter of József Gát, for much of this information.]
Please note that these are larger sound files in the AIFF format and may take some time to download.
Fantasia #2 in C major C.P.E. Bach (Wq. 59/6) performed by József Gát
Sonata in B-flat by C.P.E. Bach (Wq. 59)
performed by József Gát:
Allegro un poco / Largo
/ Gracioso
BCS Recitals
Please note that these are larger sound files in the AIFF format and may take some time to download.
Click on Andante
con espressione or Rondo
(presto) for a recording of Ulrika Davidsson playing Franz Joseph Haydn,
Sonata in C major, Hob. VI:48
Recorded at a BCS recital on September 20, 2009
Click here
for a recording of David Breitman playing Franz Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809), Sonata in B-flat major, Hob. XVI:2
Recorded at a BCS recital on September 16, 2007
Three movements: Moderato, Largo, Menuet and Trio
Click here for excerpts from the October 24, 2004 recital by David Schulenberg (clavichord) and Mary Oleskiewicz (baroque flute) playing works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and J.S. Bach (attributed).
Click on the movements listed below
to hear David Schulenberg playing C.P.E. Bach's Württemberg
sonata no. 1 in A minor, Wq. 49/1.
Recorded at a BCS recital on April 19, 2009.
Three movements: Moderato,
Andante,
Allegro
assai
Click here for selections from the October 30, 2005 recital of Renée Geoffrion, of works by W.A. Mozart. Sponsored by the Boston Clavichord Society at First Church, Cambridge.
