About October’s harpsichord: An interview with its builder, John Phillips

In our October concerts, Danish conductor and harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen will be playing a newly-completed harpsichord by renowned Berkeley harpsichord maker John Phillips. The instrument is a German-style harpsichord, which is somewhat unusual as many of the harpsichords which have been built in the last half-century are French, Italian or Flemish models.

David Wilson asked John to briefly describe the instrument, which was commissioned by Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra friends Peter and Cynthia Hibbard and completed in 2010, is his Opus 101.  John writes:

Harpsichord built in 2010 by John Phillips, Berkeley; based on one built in 1722 by Johann Heinrich Gräbner, Dresden

“J. S. Bach spent most of his life playing the so-called ‘middle German’ harpsichords made locally in Thuringia and Saxony. Of the three of these known to survive from Bach’s lifetime, two were built by members of the Gräbner family in Dresden, who for five generations from the 17th through the 19th centuries built and repaired organs, harpsichords, clavichords and eventually pianos.

“The new instrument is based on the earliest of four surviving Gräbner harpsichords – it was completed by Johann Heinrich Gräbner in 1722 and was preserved in the Villa Bertramka in Prague. Athough now much modified and with a tenuous connection with Mozart and Don Giovanni, the 1722 Gräbner is a very good example of the large middle German harpsichord with which Bach would have been intimately familiar. It is even likely that Bach knew J. H. Gräbner, as the latter was the official court tuner when Bach journeyed to Dresden to match musical skills with Louis Marchand in 1717. One of Gräbner’s sons, Christian Heinrich, later studied organ with Bach in Leipzig.

“The middle German makers never seemed much interested in the fancy decoration or elaborate musical dispositions of their colleagues in Hamburg or Berlin. In keeping with the Protestant simplicity of the original, this harpsichord is constructed mainly of pine and spruce with decoration limited to a cut paper rose in the soundboard, Italianate moldings and scrolls and fancy brass work. The framed stand is typical of contemporary middle German furniture. Musically there is a ‘French’ disposition with two unisons and an octave distributed on two manuals with a coupler. The range is typical of the largest German instruments of the 1720s; FF-d³.^. The sound of the Gräbner harpsichords with colors always suggestive of organ stops is unique. The clean articulation and remarkable clarity in all registers are perfectly suited for the solo and accompanied keyboard works of J. S. Bach.”

Learn about another harpsichord that is often seen on stage, Nic’s Goldilocks!