This recording and photo is a true representation of this Challis. It is so sad that this marvelous sound is incarcerated in a museum! I remember playing this instrument in Challis's apartment in New York before Mr. Biggs took command. The thrill of producing these grand sounds are so exciting that I cannot say enough about this "master of the harpsichord". Mr Challis built for me, in 1972, just before he died a smaller instrument with a 16', 8', 4' on the lower manual and a "shared" 8 on the upper manual. Being a school teacher, I didn't have a great deal of wealth to have one of his great harpsichords but...because he was of a like mind with me, my 7 foot Challis will "rattle the windows". I will always be grateful that I had the good fortune to have had this genius as a friend.

@SlyCooperFR

8 жыл бұрын

Please tell us how you became friends !

@ronwalker4849

8 жыл бұрын

I ALSO, CURIOUSLY, HEARD THIS JOHN CHALLIS INSTRUMENT IN HIS WORKSHOP IN LOWER MANHATTAN BEFORE IT WAS SHIPPED OUT. THE SOUND WAS EXTREMELY POWERFUL. BUT TASTES HAVE CHANGED BACK TO 18TH CENTURY SENSAILITIES AND I DON´T THINK ANYONE WOULD WANT TO RETURN TO THE ALL ALUMINUM HARPSICHORD EVEN IF THEY WOULD STAY IN TUNE FOR A WHOLE YEAR.

@mattbod

6 жыл бұрын

I bet that still cost you a considerable amount of money. This instrument sounds lovely. I like the historically accurate instruments too but I imagine these are a lot easier to keep in tune.

@robertgift

5 жыл бұрын

Wonderful! Thank you.

@stephenritchings8135

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for that account, Mr Peckham---we are in your debt. I discovered this "album" when a student (of art, not music) in the early 'sixties. Like Mr Holz I did not recall this track. In the early 'seventies I had the opportunity to speak to a couple of young men who had recently (?) recorded Miss Landowska; I wish I had picked their brains ! Mr Biggs is another iconoclast of the keyboard, and this is his most interesting foray, for me---I think.

Magnificent !…………… Biggs was a Giant.......we lost a Great one when he passed on .

0:00 Allegro 3:59 Adagio 7:40 Allegro

That harpsichord has a deep harmonic spectrum. Superb!

Glorious Vivaldi in ringing tones of an awesome harpsichord - it doesn't get any better

By far the most powerful rendition I've heard of this great piece!

This is not an harpsichord, it's assault tank... but I love it!

@christianknuchel

5 жыл бұрын

Musical assault tanks are the best assault tanks. Long live #assaulttankmusic.

@CURSOJOSEMARTI

5 жыл бұрын

jajajajajajaja, yes.... but amazing.

@iianneill6013

4 жыл бұрын

The Nyiregyhazi of harpshicords ...

@vittoriobacchiega9118

4 жыл бұрын

Microphones too close on strings. It's an innatural sound take. Date of recording?

@floriandevuyst

4 жыл бұрын

LOL !

I MISS this man... and his BEAUTIFUL playing....

@bachdon

5 жыл бұрын

I have been a full time organist church music director for 30 years due to this man....hours spent listening to him on organ and pedal harpsichord and for me his performances are the litmus test for playing bach...

@Highinsight7

3 жыл бұрын

@@bachdon He was my inspiration as an organist as well... even to this day!

@Highinsight7

3 жыл бұрын

@@bachdon you are simply AMAZING.... just WOW!!!!

I listen to this everyday

This is the best piece I’ve ever heard. I’m so glad to have it again, since I only borrowed the vinyl once.

I loved listening to this record when I was in high school.

I never expected to hear this -- one of my favourite organ pieces -- arranged for the harpsichord, one of my favourite instruments. How utterly delightful.

@DangerRussDayZ6533

3 жыл бұрын

Most organists practiced on harpsichords. A pedal harpsichord was much more practical than paying people to work the bellows for hours while you practice and compose at all hours of the day and night. It doesn't need any arrangement. It can be played on either the pedal harpsichord or organ as is.

@user-uu5ff8ch7h

Жыл бұрын

True, Bach also probably had a Pedal clavichord as well.

@shadowjuan2

Жыл бұрын

@@user-uu5ff8ch7h Not a probability, Pedal Harpsichord has been registered as one of many Harpsichords in Bach possession after his death.

I bought this album new. Glad to see someone sharing it. Didn't remember this track; have to listen to it in it's entirety again.

QUE INTERPRETE TAN FENOMENAL!! Este hombre fue simplemente grandioso; Vivaldi se hubiera emocionado con esta interpretación.

I never thought I'd hear this again. My parents had this record in the 70's, and while the entire album is one of my favorites, the first Allegro is the finest harpsichord piece I ever heard. Still know it note for note after 50 years.

Merci infiniment M Power Biggs pour l'infini pureté de votre jeu qui donne naissance à l'envol de mon Ange.

Great piece!

This is the essence of music. Thank you 🙏

Brother John, I just found this and subscribed. Thanks for such a clean job digitizing. 🎹 🌹

The Challis Harpsichord is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art instrument collection.

@RockStarOscarStern634

3 жыл бұрын

I love this Harpsichord

I grew up with my Dad's Biggs recording. So nice to rediscover and realize how righteous his playing was. Just rock solid and imminently satisfying..

I love pedal Harpsichords their so powerful!

the best I've ever heard. thank you

It is not as well known as it should be that John Challis used an anodized, honeycombed aluminum soundboard in his harpsichords. This is the reason that his instruments had such a powerful sound. Consult Wikipedia for further information.

Wonderful!

Awesome!

I bought the vinyl 33 rpm in 1966 or so. Didn't know there were other sets with this cover.

Wonderful!!

Màs que un concierto para órgano,es un concierto para clave: Y ¡QUÊ CLAVE! Impresionante.Excelente.

Both allegros should be played at ×1.25 speed. It captures the aggressive nature of Vivaldi's concertos.

PERFECTION

God bless your LP RIP.

I wish Biggs had recorded ALL of Bach's keyboard music on this instrument

Bravo bravo bravo .. bravo

Excellant

So who cares if this is not on an authentic harpsichord, a harpsichord that the great Bach would have recognised? It's thunderingly good and, as one commentator put it, "...like driving a tank..." Great fun and entirely convincing!

@lukatchumburidze3098

4 жыл бұрын

Speaking of thunder, on 2:15 one can clearly hear AC/DC's Thunderstruck, subconscious runs deep...

@sabin615

4 жыл бұрын

"Bach wrote his Six Trio Sonatas to improve the pedal technique of his son Wilhelm Friedemann. The manuscript of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue, which according to Albert Schweizer vanished in the mid-1800's, was apparently headed Cembalo e pedale, clearly indicating performance on the pedal-harpsichord. Jakob Adlung, in Musica Mechanica Organoedi (1768), describes clavichords and harpsichords with separate pedals like an organ pedal-board. Bach possessed three of these, and according to Forkel, Bach "liked to improvise on a two-manual clavier with pedal"." www.baroquemusic.org/pedalharpsichord.html

@DangerRussDayZ6533

3 жыл бұрын

It was absolutely a real instrument Bach would have recognized. This was largely how organists could practice. Hiring people to work the bellows for hours while your practiced would be expensive and impractical.

This recording is actually from the album "Bach Organ Favorites, Volume 6" released by Columbia in '74. The album cover in the video is different, and applies to the other recordings on pedal harpsichord (like the Fantasy and Fugue, Toccata and Fugue, etc.)

Brutal! And I mean that in a good way :)

Biggs also recorded a version of this piece on organ which, to my knowledge, has never been released on CD. It's a shame because, of all the recordings I have heard, Biggs's conception and execution is the best.

@brtherjohn

4 жыл бұрын

I have Bigg's organ recording of this. It's on Sony Essentials. But this version, here, is still not available in any digital format....

The 3rd movement is some true head-banging music. who else agrees?

@jalapablocrypto

2 жыл бұрын

agree, it's totally awesome CRANKED

Ya se q quiero para navidad... Esto! Me voy a regalar esta belleza :)

@alejandrom.4680

6 жыл бұрын

Ojalá y un luthier actualmente hiciera este tipo de obras maestras.

Nice.

Just a pity that the final key-releases have been edited out - they're very much a part of the instrument's character, which also makes it the only one where one can hear the end of the performer 'holding the picture' after the musical sound has died away. Other than that, a magnificent performance.

@lukeluke7082

11 ай бұрын

Have you a version of what you speak of?

👏🏻

Sounds fantastic on the pedal harpsichord

there is a need of very fast feet to play it like that (3rd movement)...I like E.P-B. because he was very openminded for musical experiments like playing ragtimes on pedal harpsicord or his very old vinyl record playing on the four organs of the Freiburg cathedral creating quadrofonic effects today we would name it surround sound

Unfortunately, the pedal harpsichord in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum IS NOT the one owned and used by E, Power Biggs! The link to the web page to verify this is as follows: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/503668. The fate and location of Mr. Biggs's instrument are currently unknown.

@RockStarOscarStern634

3 жыл бұрын

Mr Bigg used a copy of that instrument

I always wondered if such thing existed...and what bwv593 would sound like on it.

To the person who set an ad at 7:55 just finishing the stresso of the descending scales at the beginning of the 3rd movement: please, do not do it, specially if the ad is about Whatsapp.

What kind of Harpsichord is this? Modern harpsichords sound like harps. This one Rocks, it's loud.

@zimonslot

9 жыл бұрын

cool info, thnx..

@claudewiwiamjertes2122

9 жыл бұрын

***** yes, you are right...but this sounds wonderful...

@TobySpiller

3 жыл бұрын

the beast is possibly blasting the heck out of the mics and tube preamps tasked with capturing it too

wauw

apex of human civilization and the human spirit

Biggs wanted to make damn sure you HEARD this machine. Sanjosemike (no longer in CA)

09:38 this sounds like a folia variation 🤔

@erixoliver

Жыл бұрын

10:47 here too

this is heavy metal..

@maxreign9071

7 жыл бұрын

I agree completely.

Unique instrument and wonderful playing, but this is not one of Bach's more successful transcriptions. Vivaldi's original (RV 522) is gorgeous and so much more intimate, especially in the adagio.

Ahhhhhhhh...Biggs....

doppio does not make cembali with pedal only fortepianos, its a huge difference

Is there any place in Italy you can dance this?

10:46 → 10:56 I think I have heard that somewhere else before?

@abdul-hadidadkhah1459

11 ай бұрын

Pet shop boys its a sin lol

This is authentic Vivaldi !

@MajorBowes

5 жыл бұрын

Bach knew how to compose in any style

this sound is too barock to be true

@zimonslot

9 жыл бұрын

Barok ´n Roll baby!

@bonobo2go

8 жыл бұрын

+Sammy Ramdani What did you expect...heavy metal, pop, drum and bass? ;-)

@Anonymous-je7qc

3 жыл бұрын

@Silenus you just don't get it, eh?

DA PRIBUDET S NAMI SILA

It isn't surprsing that in his name is the word power.

Концерт ля минор Баха по Вивальди на клавесине.

ah yes, a stringed organ

well there is a huge difference between cembalo and piano the only similarity is that they are both keyboard-instruments no need for caps lock , i know what doppio builds

It makes a Chinese harp jealous.

@michaelg9344

Жыл бұрын

Marvelous

@michaelg9344

Жыл бұрын

Forge with fire so rich undertones and deep.

Pity...

I prefer this Vivaldi-Bach transcription on organ.

this harpsichord is loud

Ancora una trascrizione da Vivaldi, per 4 clavicembali di Bach...

Anyone else getting monkey island vibes here?

I owned a harpsichord. Can't stand more the 10 minutes of it. This is far better on organ.