Handel ~ Passacaille in g minor, suite no. 7. Harpsichord 1754 Original by Jacobus Kirkman.

Описание: Live at Handel House (LONDON 25 Brook Street, Mayfair) performed in Handel’s dining room.

The sonorities that you hear are from an original harpsichord made 269 years ago that resonate in the space of the very room that Handel himself played and rehearsed in from 1723-1759. Even though the harpsichord is not Handel’s it is contemporary with him having been made and located in London in 1754. To put this into historical perspective, it was made a year before Queen Marie Antoinette was born in 1755.

About the maker of the 1754 Kirkman harpsichord:

“Jacob Kirkman, Kirkman also spelled Kirchmann, or Kirckmann, (born 4th March, 1710, Bischweiler, Alsace [now Bischwiller, France]—died 9th June 1792 [in Greenwich] London, England.), Alsatian-born British harpsichord maker and member of a large family of instrument builders active into the 19th century.”

“Kirkman was trained as a cabinetmaker and went to England in the early 1730s to work for Hermann Tabel an immigrant Flemish harpsichord maker in London.” After Tabel's death in 1738, Kirkman married his widow (Susannah) and took over his master's workshop including the materials and stock of harpsichords. “He eventually became harpsichord maker to the queen (1763) and gained a wide reputation for the excellence of his instruments. Having no children, he entered into partnership with his nephew Abraham Kirkman (c. 1772) and began building pianofortes to accommodate a growing demand for that instrument. The last Kirkman harpsichords were constructed early in the 19th century by Abraham’s son and grandson, both named Joseph.” The last harpsichord by made by the Kirkman’s was in 1809 and the latest surviving harpsichord made by them is dated 1800.

“More than 100 Kirkman harpsichords survive, many in excellent condition. Some are lavishly marquetried (decorated with inlaid veneer), and the majority have three sets of strings operated by either one or two keyboards. Eric Feller in his work ‘From Harpsichords to Fortepianos – The Kirkman Dynasty’ states that “The writer Frances “Fanny” Burney (1752 – 1840), daughter of the well-known music historian and composer Charles Burney (1726 – 1814), described Jacob Kirkman as the best harpsichord maker of all time.” With his competitor Burkat Shudi (Burkhardt Tschudi), founder of the Broadwood firm of instrument makers, Kirkman was responsible for producing a majority of the best harpsichords in England.”

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Jacob Kirkman". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Apr. 2023,