MUSIC OF THE BAROQUE: HARPSICHORD WORKS BY...

MUSIC OF THE BAROQUE: HARPSICHORD WORKS BY HANDEL, D. SCARLATTI, C.P.E. BACH, J. S. BACH. Barbara Harbach, harpsichord. Gasparo GS-249. Rhythmic flexibility is the principal means of expression for a harpsichordist, but Harbach bends her playing speeds too far. Her pauses and accelerations add feeling to fast pieces, where she cannot kill the forward drive of the music. But slow pieces suffer. Her playing injures the momentum of such works as the Sarabande from J. S. Bach’s French Suite No. 5. “The branches may sway,” Chopin reportedly said in describing such rhythmic rubato, “but the trunk must remain firm.” Harbach shakes the trunk.