Baroque on piano or harpsichord???

[nero21]

So, i acually like the Harpsichord because it was written for that specific insturment. But its fascinating how much diversity you can play baroque with a piano vs. harpsichord.

[amojoam]

  I said the Harpsichord, because I think hearing the original style the piece was written for makes it sound so much more authentic. 

[arensky]

Both sound good, it's a matter of taste as to which you prefer. I prefer the piano, although I enjoy playing continuo on the harpsichord in an orchestra(but never a harpsichord solo, that is better left to harpsichordists, IMO; I am a pianist.)

Every pianist who plans on making pre 1770 music a part of their repertoire MUST spend more than a few hours at the harpsichord whether they like it or not! And if you can find a clavichord there too! In order to understand the literature you must understand the instrument it was primarily written for; the touch and action and response are completely different from the piano and influence the nature of the music. Nero points out that the piano has more diversity than the harpsichord, but in this case the egg(harpsichord) came first.

Playing a Fortepiano from a composer's period is important too.Mozart's and Beethoven's and Chopin"s and Liszt's pianos were all very different from each other, and what I said above applies as well to 19th Century music and instruments; the piano as we know it today is essentially unchanged since about 1870, and even then(that's another thread) ......I prefer the modern instrument(but pianos were better before 1931 in the USA and before 1941 or so in Europe IMO; don't know about older Asian Pianos, played a 1957 Yamaha once, it was pretty good.) but am glad I had acsess to good harpsichords and fortepianos as a student.

[Waldszenen]

For Baroque music, Harpsichord sounds better, but I don't mind piano.

[Bouter Boogie]

Piano in my opinion.

[twinkletoesfaery]

Both in my opinion.  Very different but both sounds good. 

[Etude]

both.

[prometheus]

Depends on the piece. Some do really well on a harpsichord. Others are highly preferable on piano. It's strange, I can't put my finger on why I think this.

[mlsmithz]

I opted for harpsichord but they can certainly sound good on either, as long as you know how best to approach the pieces on the piano - I've taken harpsichord lessons for several years and over time I've learned that while it's not necessary to try to imitate the sound of a harpsichord on a piano by playing clipped and staccato all the time, no more should you overdo the dynamic variations and pedalling.  Everyone knows each instrument requires a different technique just to play it, never mind to approach a particular piece, but then the approach one needs to take to a performance of an individual piece also differs from one instrument to the other, and I tend to prefer the, for lack of a better word, elasticity of a really good harpsichord performance to a rather more measured rendition of the same piece on the piano.  Then there's also the fact that dense chords must be rolled on a harpsichord to avoid sounding leaden - I love the effect it creates.

But prometheus does make a good point - not every Baroque piece sounds better on the harpsichord.  Some of them really come alive with the dynamic variation offered by the piano, after all.