E. Power Biggs, Johann Gottfried Walther, Six concertos after Italian played on the pedal harpsichord
Released 1974 by CBS Columbia Records M 32878
The instrument heard on this recording was built by John Challis.
Produced by Andrew Kazdin
Engineering: Fred Plaut, Ed Michalski
Library of Congress catalog card number 74-750085 applied 10 M 32878.
Cover design : Karenlee Grant I Cover photo: Don Hunstein

Side 1
Concerto in F major, after Tomaso Albinoni (7’00)
00:00 Allegro
02:51 Adagio
03:57 Allegro
Concerto in A major, after Gentili (5’58)
07:04 Allegro
10:15 Adagio
11:07 Allegro
Concerto in b minor, after Antonio Vivaldi (9’52)
13:05 Allegro
16:21 Adagio
19:40 Allegro

Side 2
Concerto in B-flat major, after Giulio Taglietti (9’54)
23:09 Adagio
26:05 Allegro
28:45 Adagio à 2 Clav.
30:24 Allegro
Concerto in a minor, after Giuseppe Torelli (9’10)
33:07 Vivace
35:56 Adagio
38:27 Allegro
Concerto in d minor, after Giuseppe Torelli (2’59)
42:24 Allegro

The selections are in the public domain.

NOTES BY E. POWER BIGGS
Relationships and contrasts of music, composers
and instruments have made the recording of
this program a particular interest for me.
There is, first, the fact that in this performance
the concertos are twice removed from their
original conception. They were composed for
various string groups, the Italians being masters
of all stringed instruments. Next, transmuted by
the Germanic skill with keyboards, they became
music for pipes, played from the manuals and
_pedals of the organ. Finally, in this recording,
they are heard in the sound of strings- hut on
the plucked strings of a pedal harpsichord. It is
the highest tribute to the It~lian masters that
their music survives such change. For, not only
does it survive, it also takes on an interestingly
different personality in each mutation.
Tidy and traditional as it may seem to us, the
great outpouring of melodic inspiration by Italian
composers in the early 18th _ century was in its
day overwhelming in its effect. It was the “new
music.” By its lucidity, form and melody such
music made a deep impression on North German
musicians, and nowhere more so than in the
highly musical town of Weimar.

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