This is a reissue of a delightful 1982 LP that should reside on the reference shelf of any keyboard-music enthusiast.
Richard Burnett, a British pianist, opened his collection of historical keyboard instruments to the public as a museum (called Finchcocks) in 1977, and shortly thereafter recorded this album as a demonstration of some of the instruments in the collection. The program is organized more or less chronologically, beginning with a virginal, spinet, clavichord, and harpsichord. One fascinating aspect of the recording is that it is not equalized dynamically; the listener can experience the absolute increase in indoor musical volume over the centuries. (The first four tracks are very quiet indeed, and this doesn't signal a problem with your equipment.) Some Haydn mechanical-clock pieces (check out "Der Kaffeeklatsch," the third of the five short pieces on track 6) and the Mozart Adagio for Glass Harmonica, K. 617, are played on small home organs. Then
Burnett comes to the pianos, which are the real heart of the program. Each work from Beethoven on up to
Chopin and Mendelssohn is effectively matched with a new development in piano technology. And, unlike with other releases of this kind, there are some fascinating technological dead ends demonstrated. The three pedals of a modern piano represent a reduction of various experiments with the piano's sonority carried out in the early nineteenth century. Consider the Bassoon pedal, which produced a wild low buzzing sound, or the Turkish Music pedal, which added drums and bells to the music (definitely an ancestor of the automatic rhythms heard on electric keyboards today!). The two pieces from Schubert's Four Komische Ländler, D. 354, track 11, are worth the purchase price by themselves, for they offer the chance to hear these pedals in action.
Wilder still is the Harmonic Swell pedal heard on Muzio Clementi's Piano Sonata in D major, Op. 16 (track 12) -- it removed the dampers from a group of untuned strings, allowing them to vibrate sympathetically for a sort of sitar-like effect. All in all, the album is a fascinating ride for any listener and an essential purchase for the keyboardist or historical-performance enthusiast.