Labyrinthus

lunes, 23 de enero de 2012

Gustav Leonhardt: J.S. Bach, Chaconne BWV1004. Original para violín

An Interview with Gustav Leonhardt. Goldberg Early Music Magazine.

En esta entrevista, publicada hace unos años, Leonhardt hablaba de su visión sobre la Interpretación Histórica de la música.

Gustav Leonhardt is a living legend. Now in his late 70s, the great Dutch harpsichordist and conductor shows few, if any, signs of declining powers, as only a few minutes with either of the two recordings he has recently made for Alpha quickly reveals. Yet Leonhardt’s distinction as both man and musician lies not with the longevity of a career that spans more than 50 years – extraordinary though that is – but with his unique place in the history of the revival of the historic harpsichord and the technique appropriate to the instrument. Remarkably, Leonhardt’s position of eminence has been achieved not by being a great proselytiser or communicator. On the concert platform he can indeed appear distant, even austere, an image that some, quite wrongly in my view, have identified as a characteristic of his playing.

For many years Leonhardt has occupied a beautiful seventeenth-century house fronting one of Amsterdam’s most attractive old canals. Once the property of a immensely wealthy and influential family of Italian bankers, on entry the visitor is immediately aware of an atmosphere of tranquillity, an oasis of calm dignity only a short distance from the noise and bustle of the city. Leonhardt greeted me with an old-world courtesy rarely encountered today. There is about the man an air of both the aesthete and the aristocrat that nevertheless precludes neither warmth nor humanity. We settled down to talk in a large, elegant room housing several keyboards, one a harpsichord built by Martin Skowroneck, a maker for whom Leonhardt has a special regard.