Marcin Swiatkiewicz

Bach / Harpsichord Concertos Marcin Swiatkiewicz

After all, it was he who composed the first harpsichord concerto. For me - as for most harpsichordists - his concertos were the first works with orchestra that I played, still as a student. Over the years I approached them over and over again, interpreting them on different harpsichords and with different ensembles: large and small, of period and contemporary instruments. I even once experimented with performing these concertos on an electric Rhodes piano.

Though the Bach harpsichords have been the subject of excellent musicological dissertations, finding a suitable instrument is by no means easy. During rehearsals we have had access to three very different ones, and none of them could necessarily be called "Bachesque". It soon became clear that the D Major Concerto with its ludic third movement can best be rendered on a Flemish instrument, whereas the sophisticated Concerto in E Major sounds fine on a copy of a French harpsichord, and the monumental D Minor Concerto will benefit from choosing a German instrument with a 16-foot register, which (of the three instruments available) is most likely the closest we can come to Bach's own preferences. Marcin Swiatkiewicz (from liner notes)