This is the best introduction I know to the heyday of the clavichord, which
reached the peak of its development in the late eighteenth century. Musical
and sociological conditions in Germany generated a flowering of idiomatic
and expressive keyboard works, which depend on the particular characteristics
of the clavichord and sound best on that instrument. At the turn of the
nineteenth century the clavichord and its music of that period virtually
disappeared, vanquished by the more robust fortepiano.
E W Wolf was one of the composers to suffer this neglect, so that nowadays
my only well known composer namesake is Hugo! Ernst Wilhelm needs re-evaluation;
many works are in manuscript and their identification uncertain. His many
keyboard sonatas were published in groups of six, their slow movements the
most expressive, the finales light and frothy. He acknowledged his debt to
C P E Bach but developed an individual style, especially in melodic writing
which is more lyrical than Bach's.
From more than 70 keyboard works, Paul Simmonds has chosen carefully examples
from Wolf's most original sonatas dating from the 1770s, some of which require
a five-octave instrument. His choice of some which are very difficult, others
quite easy, demonstrates expressive possibilities on the clavichord which
the new piano could not rival. Simmonds provides an object lesson on varieties
of touch; detaché for added liveliness and characterfulness its proper
basic manner of articulation, rather than the legato which is our more recent
ideal. Wolf emerges as a splendid composer, his oeuvre well deserving exhumation
and further research.
This 1995 CD is admirable from every point of view and is my favourite clavichord
recording. Paul Simmonds is a virtuoso performer first, conveying zest and
excitement in his skills, scrupulous scholar next. The recording quality
does full justice to a fine instrument which I have heard live, the
Richter/Hubert clavichord used in this recording being the same instrument
played by Simmonds at his London recital in October 1999
[see review in S&H]. Do
risk trying it, but remember to turn your volume control right down low to
get the true sound - wait a few minutes and you will find you have new ears!
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
see also concert review
Paul
Simmonds, Clavichord 
