Skip Sempe
Semper Sempé Harping on Harpsichords
Harpsichordist Skip Sempé belongs to a pack of young musicians who are breathing new life into early music. Without neglecting scholarship, renegades like Sempé, violinist Andrew Manze, and conductor Marc Minkowski have consistently forged fiery performances that refuse to fade into the background. Both as a soloist and as director of his ensemble, Capriccio Stravangante, Sempé's versatile virtuosity has revivified everything from Renaissance songs of the Mediterranean to masterworks of the High Baroque. Andrew Farach-Colton, barnesandnoble.com's classical music editor, sat down with the plucky keyboard player for an uninhibited chat about harpsichords, wallpaper, and the state of the art.
barnesandnoble.com: How did you first get interested in early music?
Skip Sempé: Through the recordings of harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.
bn: How old were you?
SS: I was about ten.
bn: Were you taking piano lessons then?
SS: No. I was never a pianist. I played the cello and sang when I was a kid, but I actually started playing on the clavichord. So I never had the idea that what is now considered a "period instrument" was anything unusual.
bn: Was your family musical?
SS: No, not at all. I grew up in New Orleans, so I heard lots of jazz, which provided an interesting background for things like improvisation and ornamentation in Renaissance and Baroque music -- things which no one does enough of, even now.
bn: That doesn't say much for the state of the art.
SS: I have to admit that a bad performance of a Schubert symphony or Mahler symphony really doesn't bother me that much (though of course I'd rather hear it done well!). But a bad performance of Renaissance or baroque music drives me completely insane.
bn: Do you think early music is often performed badly?
SS: Yes, though I don't think it's intentional. Take the harpsichord, for instance. I think it's an instrument that's still not well enough known, and that's partly because there are a lot of second rate harpsichords out there which have attracted second rate harpsichordists. I think that a bad instrument can attract a bad musician.
bn: What do you look for in a harpsichord?
SS: It's the same thing that a violinist looks for in a violin, or that a guitarist looks for in a guitar: the most ravishingly beautiful sound that one can find.
bn: Do you have to be a scholar to perform early music?
SS: Well, it does require library work, of course, but the real teacher for Renaissance and baroque instrumentalists is a beautiful singing voice. This is why the instrument has got to be really superb. You can't learn how to play beautifully on a baroque violin if you don't have a good instrument. And I only know about 12 harpsichords that really have this kind of beautiful sound.
bn: Baroque music has become very popular. Some say it's too popular and is often used as background music.
SS: Yes. Baroque music is now used as wallpaper, but that's the fault of performers who aren't dynamic enough, and who do too much, too fast. And that's what wallpaper is, isn't it? It's a way of decorating a room cheap and fast. So baroque music is a little bit tired at the moment because it's turned so commercial. The baroque orchestral scene is really like a kind of a sweatshop.
On the other hand, I think that Renaissance music is something fantastic because it expands the repertoire. It's the old problem of how many Brandenburg Concertos you can have in the concert hall, or in the record shops. But Renaissance music is still largely uncharted territory.
bn: Your recent recording with two harpsichords gives Bach a new twist.
SS: The reason for the two harpsichord recording is that after years of listening and looking around, I finally heard somebody who is basically doing the same thing that I am. I met Olivier Fortin completely by chance, and we decided we'd like to do this experiment where one harpsichord amplifies the other.
The harpsichord is actually a much louder instrument than most people think. The piano of Mozart's day was a softer and drier instrument than the harpsichord was at that time -- or even earlier. And Olivier and I wanted to make an enormous amount of noise! [laughs]
There's a certain shock value in what we are doing, even though it wasn't planned to be that way. We are just two people completely in love with the sound of the instruments, and the harpsichords on this recording are completely amazing. We figured that the only thing that could sound better than one really beautiful harpsichord is two beautiful harpsichords. The sound is like one gigantic harpsichord. It's very loud and boisterous -- and joyous.
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