Gerald Gifford plays organ and harpsichord music from the Music of the Dolmetsch Library
CANTORIS CRCD 6049
63' 32"

Gerald Gifford not only knows these works and these instruments well; his love of the music emanates throughout this fine recording. The first half of the programme is performed on a 1775 harpsichord by Burkat Shudi and John Broadwood which is owned by the performer having originally been purchased and restored by Arnold Dolmetsch at the end of the nineteenth century. The second half uses the 1764 Snetzler organ, which resides at the Dolmetsch home in Haslemere. Both are ideal vehicles for the music being performed and the close, almost domestic acoustic is absolutely right.

The booklet gives detailed notes on the individual works by Handel, Scarlatti, Pergolesi and many lesser know composers who are represented, but it is the sense of joy in the playing which over-rides any hint of mere historicity about the performance. Not that it should need a selling point but the variations on the Harmonious Blacksmith - anonymous rather than the more familiar by Handel - are worth the price of the CD alone.

BH