Saturday, October 4, 2025 – 7pm
Reed College Eliot Hall Chapel, Portland
Online Video Premiere – Saturday, October 18, 2025 – 2pm on the WEKA YouTube Channel
Byron Schenkman, a favorite of northwest audiences, visited from Seattle to offer an evening harpsichord recital as the special, end-of-day event for the WEKA/HKSNA Historical Keyboards conference.
The program included enchanting French music by Louis Couperin, Élisabeth Jacquet de le Guerre, Ennemond Gaultier, Nicolas Lebègue, Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon, Joseph Bologne, and Jacques Duphly. – Printable Program
Recital Review by Carol lei Breckenridge
Eliot Chapel’s warm ambience and sonorous acoustics — coupled with seasoned artist Byron Schenkman’s expressive playing of a program of 17th– and 18th-century French harpsichord music on an excellent, double-manual French instrument — provided a most satisfying close to WEKA/HKSNA’s Regional Conference October 4 at Reed College.
Titled “From the Court at Versailles to the Parisian Salons,” the program took the audience on an intriguing journey from 17th-century Baroque aristocratic formality and elegance to post-Revolutionary 18th-century salons of greater informality and the new Classical spirit.
Opening with “Pieces in F Major,” attributed to Louis Couperin (1626-1661), Schenkman – since the composer’s keyboard works survive only in manuscripts that arrange pieces according to tonality – created a traditionally ordered suite beginning with an unmeasured Prelude, originally a genre for lute. Louis Couperin is thought to have been the first to adapt this style to solo keyboard. Couperin’s unmeasured preludes – mostly using only whole notes with some slurring that presumably indicate phrasing –allow the performer total freedom of rhythm. Schenkman masterfully created flowing phrases from rich, foundational bass tones.
Next followed dance pieces: an Allemande Grave of serious demeanor; elegant and dancelike Courante and Sarabande; the folklike Branle de Basque; a Gaillarde, featuring drone basses and “swinging” phrases; and finally, the richly dignified Chaconne.
Ėlisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s (1665-1729) Suite in G Minor, from her first book of Pièces de Clavecin (published in 1687), although mostly following the same sequence of movements as Couperin’s, revealed some significant individuality, including greater contrast of Affekts and a wider range between the hands. The suite opened with an unmeasured Prelude, though Jacquet de la Guerre’s was noticeably more dramatic in nature, with some extreme contrasts. The subsequent Allemande’s sweet and singing treble voice, the heartfelt, intimate Sarabande, and sweeping phrases in the Gigue were expressively and dramatically played by Schenkman. The final movement – in perhaps a foreshadowing of Classical practice – was a simple Menuet, beautifully expressed on alternating single 8’ manuals.
Schenkman next played a lute piece of 1638, Tombeau de Mézangeau by Ennemond Gaultier (c1575-1651), later in the century transcribed for keyboard. For this tragic composition, dwelling mainly in the bass regions, Schenkman created a moving, dark mystery.
For Nicolas Lebègue’s (c1631-1702) Petite Chaconne, Schenkman served up a lively, almost jazzy rendition of this short, entertaining piece, which Schenkman described as a “palette cleanser” prior to the next two compositions, which shifted to the 18th-century’s simpler Classical style.
Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon (1745-1825), a composer and Parisian salon host, promoted the new piano and emerging Classical spirit. Her Sonata in E-Flat – with Allegro and Presto movements –certainly depicts the new style, offering single-line melodies and simple chordal accompaniments, and some dramatic, harmonically contrasting excursions. For the Presto movement, Schenkman combined all three registers (two 8’, plus 4’) creating a true “pot boiler.”
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) arrived in Paris from the West Indies at the age of seven, eventually becoming a highly regarded violinist, composer, and conductor. Despite having served in a French regiment during the Revolution, his friendship with Marie Antoinette led to his being imprisoned for a few months. The Adagio in F Minor is his only known solo keyboard piece; Schenkman conjectured that it was perhaps a sketch for an operatic scene. Like Bayon’s Sonata, Bologne’s Adagio is also strictly homophonic in texture. Schenkman effectively created contrasts – to my mind, of orchestra sections with two 8-foot registers, and singing solo sections on the single 8-foot manuals.
Schenkman’s performance of Jacques Duphly’s (1715-1789) monumental Chaconne in F Majorwas truly masterful, with highly dramatic and contrasting sections, imbued throughout with a decidedly French character. The extended buildup to the end included jazzy syncopations, exciting treble runs, and wide-ranging arpeggios from bass to top, culminating in the final section of thrilling, widely-spaced alberti-like bass figures.
Throughout, Schenkman’s affinity for and control of 17th– and 18th-century French music were wonderfully displayed, but above all, this reviewer appreciated the expressiveness of their playing. It seemed obvious that this was a program of music with which they have lived for a long time. Their clear understanding of and love for the French musical spirit was beautifully communicated to this receptive and grateful audience.
One must also mention the beauty of tone which this particular harpsichord demonstrates. Built in 2006 at the Zuckermann shop, after early 18th-century instruments by Blanchet and Taskin, it has had thorough further voicing by Paul Irvin, including restringing with Stephen Birkett’s historical wire, repining with softer material, and extensive plectra voicing to achieve historical jack motion. (Full disclosure: I am the fortunate owner of this instrument.) – Watch the video
About the Performer
BYRON SCHENKMAN (they/them) is a Queer Jewish keyboard player and scholar with a background in Historical Performance and a passion for connecting people through music. In addition to performing live on piano, harpsichord, and fortepiano, Byron can be heard on more than forty CDs, including recordings on historical instruments from the National Music Museum, Vermillion, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They can also be heard in numerous online performances with Sound Salon.
A founding director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Byron received the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music “for outstanding achievement in the field of early music” and they were voted “Best Classical Instrumentalist” by the readers of Seattle Weekly. Their piano playing has been described in The New York Times as “sparkling,” “elegant,” and “insightful.”
In recent seasons Byron has been a featured artist at the Boston Early Music Festival and the Vancouver Bach Festival, and they have premiered new works by Damien Geter, Caroline Shaw, and Jonathan Woody. Caroline Shaw’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings was dedicated to Byron. Their 2023 tour of Chile, including concerts and masterclasses in six cities, was sponsored by the Education and Culture program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government and administered by Partners of the Americas.
Byron is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and received a master’s degree with honors in performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
ADMISSION – payable at the door with cash or check
- Admission is included in the registration fee for those also attending the day-time conference presentations.
- Free to WEKA members
- Free to 18 and under, accompanied by an adult
- Free to college students with ID
- $25 general admission