Maestro Taylor, what fascinates you the most about your instrument, the harpsichord?
What I love about the harpsichord is the feeling of intimacy you have with the instrument. Under your fingers, you feel the feather quill plucking the string, as if you were touching the strings yourself. It’s this sensuality that I really like about the harpsichord!
In Turin, you will play a concert almost entirely dedicated to Bach – inspired by your recent recording “Bach and Italy” – with pieces influenced by Italian music. What characteristics of Italian music was Bach most interested in? Why was he “shaken” by the music of composers like Vivaldi?
Bach was so moved by Vivaldi’s music that he made transcriptions of it for solo harpsichord. I believe that the virtuosity, the lyricism, the Italian enthusiasm really influenced his style. Moreover, more than 20 years after this “encounter” with Vivaldi’s music, he wrote the famous Italian Concerto, which takes up Vivaldi’s forms!
In his transcriptions of Concertos, is there an intention to imitate the voices of other instruments, like the violin or the oboe?
Absolutely. It is also fascinating to see the ornamentation that Bach adds to the originals of Vivaldi or Marcello. It is an important source of Italian ornamentation. Without having been to Italy himself, his ornamentation is more Venetian than the Venetians!
In recent years, for the Alpha label, you have dedicated recordings to “dynasties” of composers (the Rameaus, the Francoeurs, the Forquerays): can you tell us if you will continue with this type of musical exploration?
It really depends on the composers! For Rameau, Francoeur or Forqueray it seems very relevant to me. But I have just recorded an album devoted to Chopin, and it is not a question of family this time! What interests me in these dynasties of composers is the reciprocal influence that each member of the family exerts on the others. This sheds new light on their music.
Interview by Liana Puschel for Unione Musicale
