Fukushi to perform first harpsichord recital in town

Yohanes Bintang Prakarsa, Contributor, Jakarta

Miwako iwako Fukushi will give what is most likely to be the first, solo harpsichord recital in Jakarta this Thursday at Teater Utan Kayu.

In Jakarta, the harpsichord has appeared quite frequently with musical ensembles. Last November, Fukushi played J.S. Bach's Concerto for Harpsichord in E major with the Jakarta Chamber Orchestra, but there has never been a solo performance to date.

The harpsichord Fukushi is to play is an instrument made by Wittmayer of Germany. Although a harpsichord looks like a piano, its internal mechanism does not work like a piano -- its strings are plucked instead of struck, creating a fragile sound rich in upper harmonics.

The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of other plucked instruments -- hence its name, which combines the Italian words for "harp", arpa, and "string", corda -- but it has a more penetrating sound. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it had a commanding position in ensemble orchestras, enriching the harmony and providing the rhythm. As such, it was normal practice to conduct the ensemble from the harpsichord.

The recital will include a discussion -- almost a tradition at the theater -- about the music and the intriguing instrument.

In contrast to the piano, the harpsichordist cannot change the loudness of the music by varying touch -- in other words, by altering how hard or gently the keys are played. This is why a harpsichord has at least two sets of strings, so that by operating a mechanism, the player can play one set only or two sets, thus changing the volume as well as the color of tones.

Fukushi's instrument can produce more variations in volume and color, as not only does it have four sets of strings, but it also has two keyboards, or manuals.

After its demise in the late 18th century thanks to the birth of the piano, in the 20th century it was restored as an acknowledged, if not preferred, instrument for performing Baroque and Early Classical pieces. Its limitation in dynamics is compensated by its richness in timbre and its transparent sound, which is capable of rendering the profusely ornamented and contrapuntal music from the Baroque era.

Fukushi has prepared an all-Bach program, which begins simply, with Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook, then moves on to selections from Inventions and Sinfonias, and climaxes with Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor and Toccata in E minor.

Notebook, a potpourri of pedagogical materials, was originally intended as a wedding gift by Bach for his second wife Anna Magdalena. Some of the pieces in it are popular among beginner pianists, although we would probably never know who actually composed them. Inventions and Sinfonias, a collection of short, imaginative contrapuntal pieces -- conveniently composed to fill two pages and thus eliminating page-turning -- was also intended for training young keyboardists who flocked to Leipzig seeking his tutelage. The final pieces are extended ones, full of fancy passages and daring harmony, probably intended for Bach's own performance -- or, in Bach's case, it is equally probable that they were first improvised and written down only later for posterity.

Fukushi is also a pianist, and began studying the piano at the age of 4 and gave her debut recital at the age of 10 in Tohoku, northern Japan, winning several competitions at home. She pursued her talent further at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary, studying the piano under Prof. Nador Gyorgy and the harpsichord under Prof. Horvath Aniko, and joined the membership of the Franz Liszt Academy Chamber Music.

After finishing her studies in 1990, she began her career as a performer in Budapest. While in Hungary, she also played the harpsichord in several festivals, including the International Baroque Music Festival in Sopron. Relocating to Indonesia in 2002, she has remained active in public performances as well as music education.

An All-Bach Recital by harpsichordist Miwako Fukushi will be held at Teater Utan Kayu, Jl. Utan Kayu 68 H, on Thursday, March 27, at 8:00 p.m. Admission: by donation (amount not fixed). Contact: tel. 857 3388; fax 856 7554; e-mail: aldero@cbn.net.id