Organists and Organ Playing

Keyboard Mini-Festival

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My last two concerts of the day were a fortepiano recital with Anthony Romaniuk and Yi-heng Yang and an ensemble called Gli Incogniti. The fortepiano recital was held at the Museum of Fine Art and was part of a keyboard mini-festival with one concert each on the harpsichord, fortepiano and clavichord. The Museum’s fortepiano was a 1796 Broadwood piano and I must confess that I like the sound of our fortepiano in Honolulu a lot better! The first performer played the “Eroica” Variations and Fugue, while Yi-heng Yang performed sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven.

The last concert with the ensemble Gli Incognito was conducted by Amandine Beyer (the same violinist we heard play Mozart’s actual violin on Monday). This time her clothes were less informal, but like other violinists we’ve seen here, she wore high heels and stood throughout the performance. What was so unusual about this concert was that they put the harpsichord on top of the continuo organ so either instrument was accessible to the player. (I’m afraid I couldn’t find her name in the program.) That means the keyboardist could play the organ for the slow sections and move quickly to the harpsichord for the more lively parts. At one point she had her left hand on the organ and her right hand on the harpsichord!

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1 thought on “Keyboard Mini-Festival

  1. Thank you for posting this review. Kathy! I had never heard of a harpsichord atop a continuo organ, either, but it does sound like a good idea to allow flexibility for the keyboard player.

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