Goy sets early music standard
The organisers have curtailed the number of events, but have not dropped their high standards. From the first, intriguing, free lecture/recital by Swiss virtuoso, Pierre Goy, this year’s festival was as entertaining as the nine that preceded it.
The venue for what may have been Cork’s first public recital on a clavichord was the Stack Theatre of CIT Cork School of Music. The fascinating keyboard was beloved of composers from the 16th to the 19th centuries, for its gentleness and responsiveness. Goy’s expressiveness was astonishing; when, following beautiful performances of CPE Bach’s music, he played Mozart’s Fantasie in D minor, it was as if he was revealing an approach to the music that was Romantic yet convincing. The clarity of articulation and the expressiveness of his playing (using vibrato, portamento, and rubato) were extraordinary.
