There was a time when harpsichordist
Ralph Kirkpatrick was the avant-garde in historically informed performance practice and the dernier cri of the period instrument movement. Of course, that time was the late '50s and early '60s and times have changed. What was once the avante-garde is now the rear guard and what was once the dernier cri is just another cry in the streets. But shorn of its foreign appellations and either its modernity or its nostalgia, how does
Ralph Kirkpatrick's Bach hold up almost half a century later?
Magnificently, as it turns out:
Kirkpatrick was a terrific player and a tremendous musician and his recordings of Bach on Archiv are as good as the best ever recorded. His technique was superb, and nothing in Bach, not the most gnarly passages nor the most gnomic pages, is beyond him. His interpretations were sublime, and nothing in Bach, not the most exalted pages nor the funniest pages, is beyond him. On those grounds alone,
Kirkpatrick's reputation is secure against the fashion of time. But aside from his technique and his interpretations, there was
Kirkpatrick's tone: enormous but intimate, full but delicate, warm with overtones and partials, and clear with brightness and brilliance. It could be argued that no harpsichordist since
Kirkpatrick played with a more robust, subtle, and beautiful tone. Deutsche Grammophon's original sound was rich and deep in its time and this remastering is even better.