62 ❧ chapter two
harpsichord registration claptrap in which, for so many years, I had resorted in
order to make palatable the sound of the inadequate instruments I was using,
but I was also to discover unsuspected resources inherent in articulation and
in the durations of notes, and at last to see the hope of combining the sensitiv-
ity of the clavichord and the fi rmness of the harpsichord into a fl exible plas-
ticity that had its own interior give-and-take. I saw the possibility of escaping
from the kind of harpsichord performance that sounds as if it had been pre-
pared and wound up like a musical clock, of escaping into something shapely
yet free, something that at its best could sound like a superlatively controlled
improvisation. I am here stating an ideal, not boasting of an achievement! I
suspect that my recorded performances of Book Two of the WTC (1965) and
of my Scarlatti (1970) represent the best in this respect that up to now I have
been able to achieve.
I know, however, that the illusion of improving as one becomes older and
more experienced is quite as unfounded as the proposition that age and
experience are superior to youth and freshness. Both have their qualities. As
autumn approaches, the best an artist can hope is to avoid slipping back, and
to compensate his losses by the gains that earlier he could not have made.
Whether fl ower or fruit or an ultimate distillation, all have their perils—and
their chances.
Yet it is diffi cult to be realistic about one’s own efforts and ideals. For me the
unattainable has always been a source of inspiration and of torture.
KKirkpatrick.indd 62irkpatrick.indd 62 2/8/2017 9:57:10 AM 2 / 8 / 2017 9 : 57 : 10 AM
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
#1