Search - George Frederick Handel, Laura Alvini :: Handel: Harpsichord Suites

Excruciating and unlistenable

John J. Schauer | Chicago, IL USA | 08/05/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"These performances show what can go wrong when the "scholarship" in music scholarship is allowed to eclipse the music. Ms. Alvini is apparently of the school that believes the improvisatory nature of some of Handel's kayboard music--the textures of which are often spare enough to invite improvisation--grants them carte blanche to completely eliminate any sense of a beat. Granted some of the suites open with toccata-like movements that obviously call for great freedom, but in far too many dance movements one has no sense at all of rhythmic pulse. Her allemandes are particularly egregious in this respect, sprawling amorphously like beached jellyfish as if the time signature and note values mean nothing. This sort of rhythmic license would be impossible in any ensemble music, where it would create total chaos and cacophony; so what possesses some performers to assume that as soon as a keyboardist has a chance to perform solo, he or she would throw the meter out the window? Actually, Ms. Alvini seems to have two modes--the rhythmically flaccid approach of her allemandes contrasts with, say, her gigues, which are played almost metronomically but at a tempo that sounds frantically rushed and at which all detail is lost in a blur. Given the twangy sonority of the Flemish-style harpsichord on which she performs, the result sounds like someone shaking a large metal drum full of nails like maraccas. Perhaps Alvini merely wanted to present interpretations that are drastically different than anyone else's, and in that she has succeeded. But there's a reason no one else performs these works this way--it simply doesn't work. If you want a stylish and historically informed performance with plenty of improvisatory thrills, you would do far better with the recording by Paul Nicholsonon on the Hyperion label, which also includes as a bonus the Six Fugues or Voluntaries plus two additional fugues."