Fantasie: 7 Composers, 7 Keyboards in Bloomington, MN

For keyboard geeks, this album is essential. Pianist
Alexander Melnikov
showcases a variety of keyboard instruments, many of them his own possessions, from a copy of a mighty double-manual 17th century
Ruckers
harpsichord in the
Bach
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
, to a modern
Steinway
in the slam-bang finale, the
Improvisation and Fugue, Op. 38
, of
Alfred Schnittke
. Several of the instruments are quite unusual. Hear the haunting tangent piano in the
Fantasia in F sharp minor, H. 300, Wq 67
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
, or the 1828 Viennese
Graf
piano on
Mendelssohn
's
Fantasia in F sharp minor, Op. 28
; historically oriented performances of
are not common. Yet the album has a second programming strand, and it is one of general interest beyond keyboard circles. The fantasia (German: Fantasie, French: fantaisie) is unique in that it is unchanged in its essentials since the Renaissance, and it is fascinating to hear those essentials as the march of styles unfolds against them.
Harmonia Mundi
contributes splendidly detailed sound from Berlin's Teldex Studio in a recording of great general interest that made classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2023. ~ James Manheim