1660 Italian Harpsichord
(1997 replica by Norman Sheppard)
Forty pounds of clarity and proportion. Finds the exquisite lines and
precise intonation of Italian renaissance and early baroque music. Ideal
for chamber performances and radio interviews.
Featured in:
Harpsichord Music from Italy &
Spain
Harpsichord Music of the
Italian Renaissance
1679 Flemish Harpsichord
(1999 replica by Norman Sheppard)
The harpsichord of J. S. Bach's youth. This four-octave instrument,
modeled after the 1679 Couchet in the Smithsonian, provides the compass
and timbre for Bach's mid-life masterpiece, The Well-Tempered Clavier,
Book I.
Featured in:
J. S. Bach, Two-part Inventions,
English Suite in A minor, Notebook for Anna Magdalena
J. S. Bach, The Six French
Suites
J. S. Bach, The Well-Tempered
Clavier, Book I
Christmas
1780 Fortepiano (2003 replica
after Stein by Norman Sheppard)
The concert keyboard instrument of the high classical style. Its brilliance
and articulation provide essential theatrical immediacy in the music
of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.
1840 English Upright Piano
The early 19th-century pianos designed for home use provided intimacy
and poetic capability. This instrument's poignant and gently swirling
sound, famous for its vocality, is perfectly matched to the sensibility
of the early romantic era ("I wandered lonely as a cloud").
Chopin's beloved studio instrument--an exquisite voice for the nocturnes,
mazurkas, preludes, and waltzes.
Featured in:
Music of Frédéric Chopin
1850 English Grand Piano
(Collard & Collard)
This entirely double-strung parlor grand piano cultivates the important
middle ground between the intimacy of the early upright piano and the
public voice of the concert grand.
Featured in:
The Americans: Piano Music of Joplin,
Ives, Foster & others
Christmas
1873 English Concert Grand Piano
Manufactured by Collard & Collard of London, this instrument embodies
the dusky grandeur of the Victorian aesthetic. At once sonorous and
veiled, the tone is ideal for late romantic, impressionistic, and early
modern music--Debussy, Brahms, Mussorgsky, Bartók, and Ives.
Featured in:
Music of Debussy, Brahms, Bartók
& Foster
Debussy, Suite Bergamasque
& other selections
