Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments

HD7-PT1769.15: Double-manual harpsichord, Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1769.

Louis Diémer and the 1769 Taskin harpsichord

Louis Diémer (b. 1843 - d. 1919) was one of the most interesting and important figures in the musical life of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century into the twentieth. He was Alsatian in origin and entered the Paris Conservatoire aged only 10. In Paris he attended Rossini's soirées, layed in chamber concerts with Alard and toured regularly together with Sarasate, the great violinist. He was also an important pedagogue and taught Resler, Robert Casadesus and no less a figure than Alfred Cortot.

In the period around 1889 and the Universal Exhibition in Paris there was an amazing revival in interest in early music and in its performance. In parallel with this there was a sudden flourish among instrument makers in the production of early keyboard instruments. The piano manufacturer Érard produced 3 harpsichords for the Universal Exhibition, one of which at least survives in the Berlin Musikinstrumentenmuseum. But keyboard maker Tomasini, and the piano firm of Pleyel, Wolff, Lyon & Cie also exhibited instruments in the Universal Exhibition.

But there was interest in early keyboard instruments even before this. Emile-Alexandre Taskin (1853-1897) who was a baritone with the Opéra Comique became fascinated with the world of the, by then, long forgotten world of the plucked keyboard instrument. It seems likely that this was partly because one of his forefathers was a renowned keyboard builder. Adolphe-Gustave Chouquet, then curator of the musical instrument collection of the Paris Conservatoire, was approached by Emile-Alexandre Taskin about the possibility of buying an instrument made by his forefather. By chance Chouquet had come across an instrument in a second-hand shop in provincial France during his search for old instruments and, also by chance, this harpsichord was indeed by Taskin's forefather. It was the 1769 Pascal Taskin double-manual harpsichord now in the Russell Collection, and probably the most famous and most copied harpsichord in the world.

The restoration of the harpsichord for Emile-Alexandre Taskin was entrusted to Louis Tomasini. A branded stamp on the wrestplank of the 1769 Russell Collection Taskin bears the inscription: "REFAIT PAR LOUIS TOMASINI EN 1882" recording the date of the restoration, probably the earliest example of historical keyboard restoration in modern times. At the time of the Universal Exhibition Emile-Alexandre Taskin loaned this harpsichord to Louis Diémer for a series of concerts given during the period of the Exhibition. These concerts were so successful that it led to the foundation of the Société des Instruments Anciens, an organisation which lasted almost 100 years and dedicated itself during this period to the performance of early music.

Diémer was the first professional musician to perform on the harpsichord (Wanda Landowska, usually considered the grande-dame of harpsichord performance was only 10 years old at the time of the Universal Exhibition). A number of different influences pervaded both the making of instruments and the performance of early music, but the dominant theme could probably best be described as a kind of romantic historicism. The newly-built instruments were often decorated with an over-the-top nostalgic version of nineteenth-century Roccoco. The concerts were usually performed in costume of a generic eighteenth-century style with powdered cotton wigs and buckled shoes bearing little relationship to actual historical dress. To add to the atmosphere of a bygone age the concerts were usually given by candle light. The instruments used were some of those often associated with the French arch-heroine Marie-Antoinette and her courtiers. Instruments which are now considered to be among those very much on the sidelines of historical practice such as the hurdy-gurdy, the harp, and the instruments of the viola-d'amore family with resonating strings, found their way into these concerts. The programmes that they played were a strange mixture what might now be described as "easy-listening Baroque". Single movements of larger works, arias extracted from seventeenth and eighteenth-century cantatas and operas, etc. all in un-related keys and by un-related composers were a regular feature.

Nonetheless the audiences clearly enjoyed them and supported them avidly. They began the modern early music revival and the vast amount of research and scholarship that has since been devoted to this field. Tonight's concert is devoted to the performers who first took part in this revival, and particularly to Louis Diémer who played on the very instrument you are hearing this evening. After having heard early music from the turn of the previous four centuries, this is an opportunity for you to hear an 'authentic' performance of one of Diémer's concerts played on the very instrument he used 100 years ago.

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