Benjamin Katz - American Record Guide, January 2013

 

"Brown reveals a large world in its gentle and almost inquisitive cadences…reflective, speculative and calm. But all to a purpose. Brown’s playing never wanders as it explores the ornaments which seem to surround it. Never does her deft approach to this varied music lack sparkle or momentum.At times it’s almost as though Bach is reminding us of a melodic journey with which we ought to be familiar... In Brown’s exposition, it’s the rigor…of rhythmic structure that drives the music forward: the opening allemande ... of the G minor Suite is a good example. In Brown’s hands such control and vigor have the effect of heightening our anticipation.

 

W.F. Bach was a superb improvisor and retained elements of his father’s love of chromaticism and the unconventional; more—the unexpected. This is evident both in the composer’s conception and Brown’s execution of these keyboard works. There is a liberty and sense of fun and engagement that make the music come alive. It’s tempting to think, perhaps, that the modern north American harpsichord ... is responsible for this flexibility and for projecting Brown’s facility with nuance and subtleties of color, particularly in chordal passages. It’s certainly a mellow and very pleasing instrument and sound.

 

One aspect of this almost hour and a quarter long recital is the variety as well as liveliness which Brown brings to the music…thanks to the sonorousness, lighter timbres and flexibility of the harpsichord which she plays. Her lightness of touch suggests versatility, and the need to let the music go where it will, and not be led. Again, the phrasing of a movement like the opening allegro…of the C Major sonata derives its structural logic from something that’s both accessible and fresh. Again, though with very different coloring, as do some of Scarlatti’s works. Brown is fully at ease with the relationship that Friedemann builds between his own individual sunny and yet thoughtful style and the intensity of his father’s idiom, which he overtly honors in such works as the Suite in G minor.

 

If you want an introduction to delightful, thought-provoking keyboard of great eloquence and elegance, then this is a good place to start."

 

Mark Sealey - ClassicalNet - October 2012