LP Recording: Pièces de Clavecin en Concert

As most classical music is still recorded on CD (apart from its availability on streaming platforms), I was delighted by the invitation from the Swiss record label rundum.music to record an album on LP, an even more “vintage” medium. Rundum.music was founded by HiFiction AG, a world-famous manufacturer of high-quality analogue audio equipment. Their productions are not only analogue but also recorded live, without editing, which has become a very rare thing in today’s music world.
Recording and editing equipent have advanced so much over the past decades that anything has become possible, and the asthetic ideals of performers, recording engineers, and audiences have come to centre around absolute perfection. Personally, as a player, I have developed different skills and a different mindset for playing in concert and for recording, because the context and the goal are by no means the same.

Making a recording without the possibility of correcting mistakes or looking for the ultimate version of a piece brings us a little closer to a natural concert situation. Together with my colleagues Matías Lanz, harpsichord, and Soma Salat-Zakarias, viol, I accepted the challenge of recording the five “Pièces de clavecin en concerts” (Paris 1741) by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) in this way.

The process was simple: we worked movement by movement, listening back to our takes from time to time, and repeated until we were happy or had few options to choose from. While listening, our focus was more on the overall musical experience than on individual imperfections. We are absolutely thrilled by the experience and learnt a great deal, both for future recordings and for live performing.

The record will be out by the end of 2026.