Word: landowska
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...little need to revive the past. But as the musical repertory gradually evolved into a monument to the 19th century, inquiring performers began to look backward. Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940), an English musician and instrumentmaker, rediscovered the nearly forgotten world of the viol, lute and clavichord, and Harpsichordist Wanda Landowska almost singlehanded shattered the romantic tradition of performing Bach on the piano. "You play Bach your way," she once told a colleague, "and I'll play...
Today's original-instrument performers are Landowska's heirs. Once considered the last refuge of a poor musician, authentic instruments now attract performers of international caliber: Dutch Violinist Jaap Schroder, who collaborated with Hogwood on the Mozart symphony series, the English Concert's Pinnock, a top-notch harpsichordist whose reading of Bach's Goldberg Variations is perhaps the most convincing on discs; American Pianist Malcolm Bilson, one of the leading exponents of classical keyboard music, which he plays on the fortepiano, a predecessor of the modern instrument. "Everybody understands that there must be different sopranos...
Roman Candles. At 31, Newman has emerged as high priest of the harpsichord, a turtlenecked Bachian missionary not seen since the days of the late Wanda Landowska and Albert Schweitzer. Like Landowska, he plays with enormous verve and intense rhythm, sprinkling musical embellishments like roman candles being tossed from an express train. This startles those who learned their Bach straight, but Newman conquers the doubters with sheer personal conviction. There is something reminiscent of Schweitzer in the way Newman's intellectual and religious philosophy, Zen, permeates his music making and mesmerizes his youthful audiences. Even on the shrill organ...
Mozart: Sonata No. 9; Haydn: Sonata No. 34 and Andante and Variations in F Minor (Wanda Landowska: Victrola). These three tender, highly personal performances-not at the harpsichord, but at the piano-were recorded in the last three years of Landowska's life. Haydn's Andante and Variations is especially endearing for its full measure of romantic freedom...
...Your report of the Munich Bach Festival [July 5] mentions two ways of playing Bach: 1) the rigid, as-written style; 2) the free, "swinging" style used by Karl Richter, Landowska and others...