Instruments from the Russell Collection - CD Booklet

DELPHIAN JOHN KITCHEN

John Kitchen John Kitchen is a Senior Lecturer and University Organist at the University of Edinburgh. He also directs the Edinburgh University Singers and is organist of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church. For many years he played regularly with the Scottish Early Music Consort as harpsichordist, organist and fortepianist, and he is a member of several other ensembles, covering a wide range of musical styles. He gives many solo recitals both in the UK and further afield, and is much in demand as a continuo player, accompanist, lecturer and reviewer.

John Kitchen has made a number of recordings, including a disc of keyboard music by the early 17thcentury Scottish composer William Kinloch, recorded on two instruments in the Russell Collection. He is at present engaged in recording the complete solo organ music of Bach's pupil, Johann Ludwig Krebs, along with various other projects.

Engineer’s Note The busy city roads surrounding St Cecilia’s Hall present notoriously difficult recording conditions for the engineer. Since our intention is to document both the characteristics of the instruments and peculiar acoustics of the hall, minimum noise reduction has been used in the interests of sound preservation.

Recording: St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh, 15 & 18 December 2000 Recording Engineer: Paul Baxter Executive Producer: Kevin Findlan Instruments prepared and tuned by John Raymond, Assistant Curator Thanks to Grant O’Brien, Curator of the Russell Collection and to The Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall in helping make this recording possible.

Further information can be obtained by visiting the Russell Collection website: http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/russell/index.html P 2001 Delphian Records Ltd C 2001 Delphian Records Ltd Cover and Artwork: Details from 1793 Broadwood harpsichord and interior of St Cecilia’s Hall C Kevin Findlan Photographs of Russell Collection Instruments: C Joe Rock Printed and Manufactured in the EEC Delphian Records Ltd PO Box 17179 Edinburgh EH12 5YD www.delphianrecords.co.uk

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P7-TL1810.37: GRAND PIANOFORTE Thomas Loud, London, c.1810.

The Loud family of piano makers was extensive, working in London and later in New York and Philadelphia. There were several Thomas Louds, but the builder of the present piano was the senior member of the family. (His son Thomas seems at one time to have worked in London as apprentice to Clementi who, as well as a composer, keyboard-player and teacher was also a piano manufacturer.) This instrument has a compass of five-and-a-half octaves, FF-c4, and is triple-strung throughout. Two pedals and a hand-stop operate the una corda and damper mechanisms. It is perhaps worth noting that, although today we generally use the term 'fortepiano' to indicate an instrument of 18th/early19th-century type to distinguish it from later iron-framed instruments, the terms 'pianoforte' and 'fortepiano' were used interchangeably in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) Sonatina in D, Op.36, no.6 21 i. Allegro con spirito 22 ii. Rondo: Allegretto spiritoso Clementi's output for the piano was extensive and surprisingly varied; much of it was intended for teaching purposes, including the Op. 36 set of sonatinas, originally published in 1797 as a supplement to the composer's Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte. This elegant two-movement piece still fulfils its didactic purpose today in an agreeable way.

John Kitchen and Grant O’Brien

The Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments is housed in St Cecilia's Hall on Niddry Street in the Cowgate, Edinburgh, and is one of the world's most important collections of its type, attracting visitors from all over the globe. It presently comprises over 50 instruments dating from the late 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Most of these are harpsichords, spinets and virginals, and there are a number of restored clavichords. The Collection also contains some important early pianofortes, including the earliest extant English grand piano, together with a number of small pipe organs from the same historical period covered by the rest of the instruments. Most of the instruments heard in this recording are tuned at A=415, that is, about a semitone below modern concert pitch of A=440; the Italian harpsichord and the enharmonic organ, however, are at A=440.

History of the Russell Collection Raymond Russell (1922-1964), after whom the Collection is named, was a man of varied interests. He began to collect early keyboard instruments shortly after the Second World War and in 1959 published his book The Harpsichord and Clavichord—an Introductory Survey (Oxford, 1959, second edition, 1973) in which many of his own acquisitions now in the Russell Collection are illustrated. Russell was an accomplished harpsichord player and passionately keen to see the re-establishment of the traditions of making and playing of early keyboard instruments. Eventually, he owned representative instruments from the most important schools of harpsichord and clavichord building.

By 1958, when his collection was almost complete, Russell conceived the idea of presenting most of it to a British university where it could become a live museum of restored instruments and a centre for the study of keyboard organology and performance practice. Shortly after Raymond Russell's death his mother, Mrs Gilbert Russell, presented the University of Edinburgh with 19 instruments from her son's collection. Six keyboard instruments were added to the Russell gift and formed an amalgamated collection of 28 instruments, which, together with the newly restored St Cecilia's Hall, was first presented to the public in 1968. A further 24 instruments have been added to the Collection since its opening. Five have been received as gifts or bequests, ten are on loan from private individuals or other museums and nine have been bought for the Collection with funds raised by The Friends of St Cecilia's, with additional support from various organisations. The nine instruments recorded here offer only a taste of this extraordinary Collection.

Front cover: Detail from 1793 Broadwood harpsichord.

Left: Interior of St Cecilia’s Hall.

V1-AB1586.1: ITALIAN POLYGONAL VIRGINAL Alexander Bertolotti, Verona?, 1586.

This is the oldest functioning instrument in the Collection; like almost all virginals, it has one keyboard and a single set of strings. Very little is known about its builder; recent research by Grant O'Brien has, however, shown that this virginal was built using the Ve r o n e s e o n c i a , o r i n c h measurement, and not that used in Venice. It therefore seems likely that Bertolotti lived and worked in Verona.

Anon. 16th-century Scottish 1 Gailliarda la Reyne d'Écosse 2 Queen of Scots Galliard Tarquinio Merula (1594/5-1665) 3 Capriccio cromatico The two anonymous Scottish galliards are keyboard transcriptions of lute solos, and are no doubt the sort of music that would customarily have been played on such instruments. Merula, who lived and worked in Cremona, left a small legacy of keyboard music, including the Capriccio cromatico. This belongs to the genre of chromatic keyboard pieces the effect of which is greatly enhanced when played, as here, on an instrument tuned in quartercomma mean-tone temperament. This tuning system, for generations the most common for keyboard instruments, offers pure thirds in the most frequently used keys. It also results in semitones of different sizes—wide and narrow—which make such chromatic writing particularly striking. This special flavour, very much part of the music, is totally lost in modern equal temperament, where all the semitones are the same size. The result can be heard in the opening chromatic scale of Merula's Capriccio, and indeed throughout the piece.

HS6-JB1793.19: SINGLE-MANUAL HARPSICHORD John Broadwood, London, 1793.

HS1-A1620.2: SINGLE-MANUAL ITALIAN HARPSICHORD Naples?, c. 1620.

John Broadwood was born in 1732 at Oldhamstocks near Cockburnspath in East Lothian, Scotland, where he learned joinery and cabinet-making from his father James. In 1761 Broadwood went to London and, after a short period with Americus Backers, took up employment as an apprentice harpsichord builder with Burkat Shudi, one of London's best-known harpsichord makers. However, Broadwood seems to have been interested in the piano ever since its introduction to London's musical circles in the mid-1760's. The 1793 Broadwood harpsichord should therefore be viewed in the context of a tradition of the use of the piano in London that was already almost 30 years old, also bearing in mind that Mozart had died two years before it was built! Indeed, this was the Shudi/Broadwood firm's last harpsichord.

This bright and vigorous-sounding harpsichord is unfortunately neither signed nor dated. It is clear from its construction, however, that it was made in Italy and that it must date from around 1600 to 1620. Recent research, again analysing the size of the unit of measurement used in its construction, has shown that it must be from Naples.

Many aspects of its construction reflect the contemporary musical climate. It is equipped with a Venetian swell mechanism similar to that found on the swell-box of an organ. This consists of a kind of inner lid (which can also be lifted up so that the instrument sounds normally) fitted with hinged shutters which can be opened and closed by means of a pedal to produce sforzandi and crescendo/diminuendo effects. The tonal flexibility is further enhanced by the usual possibilities of changing registration using either hand stops or a pedal to give different loud and soft combinations of the two 8' and one 4' choirs of strings. In addition, one of the 8' choirs of strings is plucked using composite plectra of leather instead of the usual quill.

G.F. Handel (1685-1759) Overture: Rodelinda 20 i. [Maestoso]Presto - ii. Menuet Handel's music was so popular in its day that keyboard transcriptions were made of much of it. In 1755 the publisher Walsh offered to the public Handel's Sixty Overtures from all his Operas and Oratorios Set for the Harpsicord or Organ, a publication which seems to have been very successful. Since a few overturetranscriptions have come down to us in Handel's autograph, we can assume that he approved of the practice.

Instruments such as the 1793 Broadwood are sometimes criticised on the grounds that their various effects and gadgets have little to do with the actual repertoire of the instrument. However, these devices come into their own when playing transcriptions; one can employ them imaginatively to give the effect of solo/tutti and other orchestral colourings.

The instrument has a single manual, two 8-foot registers and a compass of C to d3. It became clear during the restoration of the harpsichord by the late John Barnes in 1975 that it had undergone various modifications during its life. Many characteristics of the workmanship of the present final state are typical of those of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the pianoforte.

William Byrd (1542/3-1623) 4 Pavana: The Earle of Salisbury 5 Galiardo Byrd's well-known Pavan and Galliard were included in the celebrated publication Parthenia, or the Maydenheade of the first musicke that euer was printed for the Virginalls (c 1612/13). The stately Pavan contrasts with the more sprightly Galliard. Generally such dances each had three strains, with decorated repeats; unusually, the present movements each have only two strains, without decorated repeats (which should probably be supplied by the player).

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) 6 Ballo del granduca The Ballo del granduca is a dance tune written by Emilio de Cavalieri, which featured in the famous Florentine Intermedii of 1589. A number of keyboard composers used it as the basis for keyboard variations; this is the version generally attributed to the great Dutch organist and composer Sweelinck, although it may be by his pupil Samuel Scheidt.

S3-TH1728.10: BENTSIDE SPINET Thomas Hitchcock, London, c.1728.

Thomas Hitchcock was born around 1685 (and so was an exact contemporary of Scarlatti, not to mention Bach and Handel).

He lived and worked in London, and was one of a family of English spinet and harpsichord makers. The wing-shaped 'bentside' spinet is a compact instrument, and was a popular domestic instrument in its day. It has been said, with some justification, that the spinet is to the upright piano what the harpsichord is to the grand piano.

Almost all spinets have one keyboard and one set of strings. Surprisingly, perhaps, most of Hitchcock's spinets have the compass G-g3 (61 notes), which is quite extended; many harpsichords of the period extend upwards only to f3. This Hitchcock instrument is full of character and highly responsive.

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) 7 Sonata in F minor K.481 8 Sonata in G K.471 Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, mostly single-movement works in binary form, are immensely varied and of consummate inventiveness. Thirty were published as the Essercizi per gravicembalo in 1738, and the London composer and organist Thomas Roseingrave subsequently published further sonatas. Roseingrave was the instigator of what might be called the Scarlatti cult in mid 18th-century England, and many prominent musicians subscribed to his edition. Undoubtedly, then, these sonatas must often have been played on English harpsichords and spinets. The Sonata in F minor is melancholy and elegiac. The Sonata in G is minuet-like, and traverses the keyboard in characteristically Scarlattian large leaps. More interestingly, this piece requires the top G missing in many instruments of the period, but available on the Hitchcock spinet.

Antoine Forqueray (1672-1745) Three movements from the Troisième Suite in D 16 La Régente 17 La Du Vaucel 18 La Morangis ou La Plissay In 1747 Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, son of Antoine, published a volume of suites for bass viol and continuo entitled Pièces de violes avec la basse continuë composées par Mr Forqueray le père. To increase sales, they appeared simultaneously in a version for solo harpsichord, and it is these that we include here. Jean-Baptiste claimed that almost all the pieces were by his father, apart from a few he had added, but there are reasons to doubt these claims. We will probably never know exactly which Forqueray composed which pieces; nor is it quite clear who made the keyboard versions. At all events, the keyboard writing is highly idiomatic, and the Taskin harpsichord is an ideal instrument on which to hear these marvellously sonorous pieces to best advantage. La Régente is noble and grand; La Du Vaucel expressive and tendre; La Morangis ou La Plissay is an extensive rondeau with a repeated refrain and varied couplets and is fiery, reflective and virtuosic in turn.

Armand-Louis Couperin (1727-1789) 19 L'Affligée Armand-Louis Couperin was the grandson of an uncle of the well-known François Couperin le grand. Armand's music, rather than that of the famous François, is contemporary with the greatest French harpsichords of the period. The seductive qualities of instruments such as Taskin's imbue this music with a power and persuasiveness that it lacks when played on the wrong sort of harpsichord; nowhere do we find instrument and music so inextricably linked.

Couperin's L'Affligée, in the remarkable key (for the period) of B flat minor, fully yields its griefstricken charms only on an instrument such as this remarkable Taskin.

HD7-PT1769.15 DOUBLE-MANUAL HARPSICHORD Pascal Taskin, Paris, 1769.

HD4-JK1755.30: DOUBLE-MANUAL HARPSICHORD Jacob Kirckman, London, 1755.

This is the most famous harpsichord in the world. Originally built by one of France's greatest harpsichord builders, it survived the turmoils of late 18thcentury France and was restored by Tomasini in 1882. Since then it has played an important public role in the revival of interest in making and playing harpsichords, and has been used as a model by countless harpsichord makers over the last 40 or so years. In the 1890s it was played publicly in the Paris concerts given by the pianist Louis Diémer (1843-1919), who later bought the instrument. During the Second World War it was moved to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, but was reclaimed and returned to Paris after the war, and sold to Raymond Russell in 1952.

The prolific Jacob Kirckman was born in the Alsace near Strasbourg and emigrated to England in the early 1730s. He became a naturalised British citizen in 1755, the same year as that in which this harpsichord was built.

It was part of Raymond Russell's original collection, and is reputed to have been his favourite harpsichord. In contrast to many rather plain English instruments, it is extremely richly decorated, with lavish marquetry work and figured walnut panels. Apart from its great beauty and importance as a musical instrument, it is also an example of the finest English furniture design and execution. It has the usual English disposition with two sets of 8foot and one set of 4-foot strings. There is an extra set of jacks placed so as to pluck the strings very close to the nut, giving a bright nasal sound, sometimes called inappropriately the 'lute' stop. This can be heard in the central movement of Greene's Suite.

Its appearance and decoration are simple and elegant, and the sound is sumptuous and highly refined. Like most French harpsichords of this period, the lower register is particularly rich and opulent; this fact was exploited by composers of the period, and is well illustrated by the Forqueray pieces on this recording.

Maurice Greene (1695-1755) - Suite in F 9 i. Allegro 10 ii. Andante 11 iii. Allegro Although somewhat dwarfed by Handel, as were all English composers of the period, Greene was a notable figure in his day, holding appointments as organist at St Paul's and composer to the Chapel Royal. Five years before our Kirckman was built, he published A Collection of Lessons for the harpsichord (1750), which consists of 15 suites each containing three or four contrasting movements. Greene aims for simple elegance and pleasing gracefulness, rather than profundity or brilliance; the Kirckman is an ideal vehicle for this music.

C2-JH1763.22: UNFRETTED CLAVICHORD Johann Adolf Hass, Hamburg, 1763.

OR4-TP1765.43 ENHARMONIC CHAMBER ORGAN attr. Thomas Parker, London, c.1765.

Johann Adolph Hass (c1713-c1771) worked in Hamburg as a clavichord and harpsichord maker, and may also have been engaged in organ building. This clavichord is a particularly fine example of his work. Its decoration is spectacular, and must have been stunning when the instrument was new: the outside of the lid and case have a silvercoloured chinoiserie decoration on a vermilion ground; inside there is olive wood and kingwood veneer, mother of pearl and tortoise shell. The lid painting is a rural scene with houses, a river with boats, and figures in a neo-Chinese style; this is surrounded with a silver-coloured chinoiserie border. The soundboard is decorated with large flowers.

This single-manual English chamber organ was made in London by Thomas Parker, c.1765, and has been restored by Dominic Gwynn. It is equipped with two levers that operate extra pipes for the enharmonic equivalents of all the accidental notes except for F sharp: C sharp/D flat, D sharp/E flat, G sharp/A flat and A sharp/B flat. In this respect, the instrument is similar to the larger double-manual organ that Thomas Parker built for the Foundling Hospital in 1768. The present organ has four registers: Stopt Diapason 8', Open Diapason 8' (tenor C), Principal 4' and Fifteenth 2'. The pure thirds result in a sound that is exceptionally vigorous and exciting, qualities further enhanced by the clear and direct voicing.

It is unfretted, that is, it has separate pairs of strings for each note, unlike many smaller clavichords in which certain strings provide more than one pitch. (This is possible since the tangent not only strikes the strings, causing them to vibrate, but also 'stops' them, thus determining their vibrating length and therefore their pitch.) The clavichord was considered for much of its history essentially a practice instrument. In the mid-18th century, however, a distinct German school of clavichord repertoire developed, much of it associated with J.S. Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; this Hass clavichord is just the sort of instrument Emanuel Bach played when in the employment of Frederick the Great.

John Stanley (1712-1786) 14 Voluntary in G, Op.7 no.9 - Largo Staccato—Vivace [fugue] G.F. Handel (1685-1759) 15 Fugue in A minor from Six Fugues or Voluntarys, Op.3

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Das wohltemperirte Clavier Bk. II 12 - 13 Prelude and Fugue in E flat As well as containing some of the greatest music ever written, J.S. Bach’s two volumes of 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key, often called 'the 48', fulfil a number of purposes. They provide a compendium of fugal writing; they offer a similar stylistic variety in the preludes; they encourage the investigation of tuning systems that allow all the keys to be used (although Bach was not, as is sometimes claimed, advocating 'equal temperament'); they foster a good keyboard technique. It seems that Bach had no particular keyboard instrument in mind for these pieces, and undoubtedly they were often played on the clavichord by members of his family and by his many pupils. The E flat from book two, with its gently flowing prelude and restrained fugue, is well suited to the clavichord.

Both Stanley and Handel had connections with the Foundling Hospital, a charitable institution founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram. In 1747 a chapel was built for the Hospital, in which Thomas Parker later installed his two-manual organ. Like the smaller Parker organ in the Russell Collection, it was equipped with extra pipes to provide enharmonic equivalents. Both Stanley and Handel, therefore, have connections with this sort of instrument.

Stanley published three attractive sets of organ voluntaries, which remain staple fare of many organists today. The Opus 7 set, from which this Voluntary in G comes, was published in 1754.

Although intended for the larger English church organ of the period, it sounds well on the Parker chamber organ.

Handel’s Six Fugues or Voluntarys for the Organ or Harpsichord were published by Walsh in 1735; they include the highly chromatic fugue in A minor, which was subsequently re-used by Handel as the chorus 'They loathed to drink of the river' in his oratorio Israel in Egypt. The tuning system of Parker's instrument lends a rather alarming effectiveness to the performance of this tortuously chromatic fugue.