Opus number: op. 97
Title: Partita No. 1 for Harpsichord
Instrumentation: Harpsichord
Dedication: Paul Cienniwa
Date written: 2009
Length: eleven minutes
Premiere performance: February 27, 2010, Paul Cienniwa, Newport Baroque, Newport, Rhode Island
Subsequent performances: March 28, 2010, The Music of First Church Boston. May 19, 2010, Brown Hall at New England Conservatory. January 16, 2012, First Church Boston. Paul Cienniwa, harpsichordist
Program Notes: Partita No. 1 is dedicated to Paul Cienniwa, who gave its world premiere on the Newport Baroque concerts in January 2010. This work shows a kinship with 18th-century keyboard music, especially the works of Domenico Scarlatti. Each movement presents a different expressive “take” on the same material: Overture–dry wit; Courante–restrained charm; Air–majestic song; Sarabande–introspection; and Toccata–slapstick bravado.
Reviews: (performance) Boston Musical Intelligencer, March 31, 2010. (recording)
“A Sarabande by Larry Thomas Bell, bridges Rameau and Sweelinck by crystallizing their music in modern, angular terms, and then making slight adjustments. It’s music that Bach would have listened to carefully.”– Laurence Vittes, Huffington Post
Recording: Larry Bell: In A Garden of Dreamers, Paul Cienniwa, harpsichordist, Albany Records (Troy 1308/09) Sarabande recorded by Paul Cienniwa, Harpsichord Music for A Thin Place. Whaling City Sound CD (WCS 059)
