Inaugural recital on new harpsichord

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33904, 25 July 1975, Page 8

Inaugural recital on new harpsichord

John Jennings gave the inaugural recital yesterday, to a large audience, on a new harpsichord bought recently by the University of Canterbury School of .Music. The instrument is a necessary piece of equipment for the work which the School of Music is doing, and will add to its resources. It is a onemanual instrument, made by Mr A. Loretto, of Auckland, with case work decorated with paintings by Robin Overall, of New Zealand, and European flowers and animals. In construction it is light, giving the clear. light, and •ntimate sounds of the older type of Flemish instruments. In tone, and in finish of workmanship, it is a delight, and the action has the freedom necessarv for the elaborate ornamentations of music designed for playing on it. Mr Jennings has wide experience of the stvle required for authentic performance of such music, and he gave a

charmingly interesting pro-! gramme of works by Pierson. Byrd. Couperin. Rameau, and Kuhnau. thus giving examples of the English. French, and German schools of composition. Such music demands a light clarity of tone rather than the more rounded and! resonant tone of a piano. The j decorations which are so close a part of this music 'were played with the tink-j ling clarity they demand. . With such an instrument, and with a player of Mr Jen-I nings’s ability, the university! should have much that will i give pleasure and value to' listeners. —C.F.B. Seaside toll Thirty - seven people drowned and 11 other Japanese were reported missing; this week-end after millions: went tc the seaside or country for the first Sunday outing since the end of the rainy season, ’he State radio re-1 ports.—Tokyo.