SEHKS 2006
Perhaps not all roads, but sufficient ones led to Rome (Georgia), where the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society held its 26th annual gathering at Shorter College March 8–10. Focused on the keyboard music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the group also celebrated all twelve of its presidents, each of whom participated in the program.
Several spoke (Shannon on the barrel organ, Jacob on SEHKS’ history); others played Shorter’s elegantly voiced mid-20th-century Walter Holtkamp Sr. organ (Butler, Brock, and Lohuis, with violinist Robert Murray); harpsichord (Funaro); or fortepiano (Louwenaar, whose Mozart Rondo in A minor tugged at the heart, and Willis, soloist in Mozart’s insouciant Concerto in F, K. 459, with the fledgling Atlanta Baroque Orchestra under John Hsu). Those who both spoke and played included host DeWitt (muselaar), Johnson (organ), Palmer (harpsichord), and Lucktenberg (demonstrating bits of the same Mozart works on harpsichord, fortepiano, and his 1942 Steinway grand piano).
A signed, limited edition print of Jane Johnson’s witty caricature was presented to each president at the Society’s business luncheon.
Seasoned SEHKS presenters included mini-recitalists Judith Conrad (clavichord), Elaine Dykstra (organ), Gail Olszewski (fortepiano), and Iberian music specialist Linton Powell. New to these programs were Luis Sanchez, Marie-Louise Catsalis, and Robert Holm. Youthful vigor marked Michael Tsalka’s fortepiano program and that of the Canadian duo Ian Robertson and Sara-Anne Churchill, who gave a scintillating and sensitive reading of Mozart’s Sonata in D for two claviers, K. 448, using fortepiano and harpsichord.
In a featured Friday evening concert at nearby Reinhardt College, inimitable and amiable jazz harpsichordist Don Angle, possessor of one of the world’s finest harpsichord techniques, showed it to musical advantage in the warm acoustical bloom of the new Falany Center’s concert hall.
Send news items or comments about Harpsichord News to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275;
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