In December 2020 the musical world commemorates the 250th anniversary of Gottlieb Muffat’s death. As its contribution, Breitkopf & Härtel is publishing a second set of six suites for harpsichord or piano, edited by Glen Wilson. Here Glen Wilson outlines the historical and musical background.
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Glen Wilson recently retired from 29 years as professor at the University of Music in Würzburg. In a career that was launched by winning all categories in the Bruges competition and furthered by succeeding Gustav Leonhardt as harpsichordist for Das Alte Werk, he performed and conducted in some 30 countries and made 24 solo CDs. In a recent landmark article he showed that the music ascribed to Louis Couperin was in fact mostly composed by his brother Charles. Glen has just finished a biography of his late colleague Eta Harich-Schneider (1894–1986), whose adventurous life saw her become the foremost Western expert on Japanese music – a subject dear to the hearts of Glen and his wife Naoko Akutagawa, who together organized an engagement for the Kanze Noh Theater at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival in 2016. This year Naoko will record five more Gottlieb Muffat suites for NAXOS, which are to be found in Glen’s new B&H edition.
Photo credit: Naoko Akutagawa.
