EMA CD Reviews

The origins of these works in private musicking, the spare accompaniment, and the musicians’ sensitive interplay make this a thoroughly intimate affair.

Byron Schenkman’s recent recording, “The Art of the Harpsichord from Cabezón to Mozart,” released on his own label, features performances on eight instruments in the vast collection at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, SD.

A listener could enjoy this disc for years without ever finding out (or caring) that it is a reissue of a 1979 Archiv LP. Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert’s contributions to early music and historically-informed performance are now the stuff of textbooks, yet nearly 40 years later these performances continue to crackle with energy and insight.

The pieces range from (largely untexted) Magnificats, motets, and anthems to French, Italian, and English secular music and more than 60 instrumental works.