The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Harpsichordist performing in Lakeville
LAKEVILE — On Oct. 6, Crescendo presents the famed Polish harpsichordist Władysław Kłosiewicz, who comes to Lakeville, the former home of the visionary performer Wanda Landowska, to play a concert in honor of her legacy. There will be one performance only, at 6 p.m. at Trinity Church in Lakeville, 484 Lime Rock Road.
A conductor and worldrenowned interpreter of early music, Kłosiewicz is one of today’s greatest harpsichordists. He performs internationally at the world’s leading festivals and with the most prominent soloists and conductors specializing in 17th and 18th century music. He has recorded over 100 hours of harpsichord music for radio, television stations and compact disc companies. He will be performing similar solo programs memorializing Landowska on Wednesday at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and on Oct. 7 at Yale’s Collection of Early Instruments.
The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and baroque music; almost every baroque composer wrote music for it. But during the late 18th century, as the piano became popular, it gradually disappeared from the musical scene. In the 20th century the harpsichord made a resurgence partly due to the renaissance of “historically informed” early music — that is, music faithful to the manner and style of the time in which it was written.
Christine Gevert, Crescendo’s founding artistic director, a harpsichordist, said, “The 17th century keyboard virtuoso Johann Jakob Froberger was the first composer to write titled works that describe emotional events for the harpsichord, and leave room for the creativity of the player, by only sketching the outline of parts of his compositions, much like jazz. He influenced his contemporaries, among them the French composer Louis Couperin and his famous nephew François Couperin.”
Landowska’s performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a significant role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord. She was the first person to record J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations on a harpsichord. Born in Poland in 1879, she lived much of her life in Europe before escaping the Nazi threat and reaching the U.S. in 1941. She settled in a large home overlooking the town lake in Lakeville, touring and teaching until her death in 1959.