56 ❧ chapter two
churches are safer and indeed form excellent models for concert halls as, for
example, the Musikvereinssaal^7 in Vienna or that extravagant and remark-
ably successful combination of amphitheater and basilica as represented by the
new Philharmonie in Berlin. Without doubt the best church in which I’ve ever
played is the cathedral in Perugia. Its transepts are shallow enough not to cre-
ate problems and the sound is rich, even, and balanced.
Most of my concert giving has been based on recitals. Only in the earliest
days and under special circumstances did I ever undertake to play both harpsi-
chord and clavichord on the same program. My long abstention from playing
the modern piano in public precluded any temptation to mix it with harp-
sichord. Each one of these instruments has its own frame of reference, and
any shift from one to the other is likely to provoke invidious comparisons of
their peculiarities and defi ciencies, while calling attention to the instruments
rather than to the music itself. I have never been entirely happy in playing solo
groups on chamber music programs. There is seldom time to reestablish the
frame of reference necessary to the harpsichord by itself, or for the listener to
adjust his ear. After a cantilena on the violin, how can a sarabande on the harp-
sichord create the illusion of a sustained line? When used in connection with
other instruments, the harpsichord easily becomes subjected to the limitations
of “type-casting.” It can make itself cute, quaint, or brilliantly busy, but it can
never show its capacity for becoming a balanced well-rounded means of mak-
ing music unless it is manipulated, and only then, by a true artist.
In order to protect the frame of reference for the presentation of the best
literature of the harpsichord for what it really is, I have always preferred recit-
als, despite their artifi ciality. Even now, when the harpsichord has become
relatively familiar, a certain amount of time is usually needed for the adjust-
ing of the listener’s ear, and the fi rst piece of a program, or playing after an
intermission, nearly always risks being sacrifi ced for this purpose. I prefer
programs without intermission, but they are seldom possible in the context
of ordinary concert giving. In a program with intermission, it is necessary not
only to reconquer the ears of the listeners at the beginning of the second
half, but also to balance the halves in such a way as to avoid undue discrep-
ancy of proportion. For this reason, nearly all my programs are longer than I
would like them to be.
It is hardly necessary to point out that nothing even remotely resembling a
harpsichord recital was ever played before the twentieth century and that the
literature of the harpsichord was not designed for concert halls. But during my
lifetime, except for recordings, how else could one bring it before the public?
- Grosser Musikvereinssaal (Goldener Saal or Golden Hall), located in the
Wiener Musikverein, was inaugurated in Vienna in 1870. The building also
contains several small chamber music halls.
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