Search - Yates :: Tombeau

German Harpsichord Music as Influenced by France and Italy

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 12/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tombeau. German Harpsichord Music of the Seventeenth Century. Performed by Sophie Yates on harpsichords by Hammet and Ransom after Grimaldi and by Andrew Garlick after Vaudry. Recorded at Forde Abbey, Dorset, England between 7th and 10th August, 1995. Published in 1998 by Chandos as Chaconne 0596. Total time: 74'45".



I purchased this disc because it was included on the Quarterly List of the Association of German Record Critics (4/1998) in recognition of its high artistic quality. Under the very French-sounding title "Tombeau", Sophie Yates plays music by five German composers of the seventeenth century: Froberger, Kerll, Pachelbel, Böhm and Georg Muffatt. She plays on two harpsichords, one a beautiful-sounding copy of an Italian instrument by Grimaldi, the other a copy of a French-style two-manual harpsichord by Vaudry. This combination of French and Italian instruments with a French title and German music seems to be deliberate, because Sophie Yates points, in her notes, to the French and Italian influences on at least three of the composers she has chosen for her recital. The bulk of the playing time is devoted to music by Froberger (three suites, two toccatas, a meditation and his famous "Tombeau de M. Blancheroche"), which Ms. Yates generally plays in the French lutenists' "style brisé", Froberger having been strongly influenced by Gaultier. The overall effect is enchanting, the sound quite bewitching. However, it does seem a bit strange to issue a recital of German harpsichord music in such an un-German style and on such decidedly un-German sounding instruments. Gustav Leonhardt has, among others, demonstrated (on his CD for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi called "Alte Cembali") that German harpsichords sounded quite different from their Dutch, French and Italian counterparts; and if Froberger can be played this way, it is less likely that music by Böhm oder Pachelbel should be made to sound so French. I think the German harpsichordist and music professor Siegbert Rampe has probably produced the most reliable Froberger edition up to date (two discs each on Virgin Classics and MDG)."