Bob van Asperen is never going to set the world on fire. First, of course, he is a classical musician. Second, he is a harpsichordist. Third, he specializes in historically informed performance practices. Fifth and most importantly, van Asperen, for all the brilliance of his technique and the depth of his performances, is no firebrand. He is a fine player with a gift for nuance and an instinct for subtleties and what he can do with them. But it'll never be enough to set the world on fire, which is the world's loss. As this ...
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Bob van Asperen is never going to set the world on fire. First, of course, he is a classical musician. Second, he is a harpsichordist. Third, he specializes in historically informed performance practices. Fifth and most importantly, van Asperen, for all the brilliance of his technique and the depth of his performances, is no firebrand. He is a fine player with a gift for nuance and an instinct for subtleties and what he can do with them. But it'll never be enough to set the world on fire, which is the world's loss. As this wonderful 1994 recording Bach: Concertos for 3-4 Harpsichords demonstrates, van Asperen is more than capable of virtuoso display, but that's hardly what he's interested in doing. What van Asperen is interested in doing is giving deeply musical performances of deeply musical works. With Bernhard Klapprott and Carsten Lohff on the Concertos for 3 harpsichords, plus Marcelo Bussi on the massive Concertos for 4 harpsichords, van Asperen is more than capable of delivering...
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