The problem with most recordings of the clavichord is that they treat it as an instrument for public performance. The result is a distant dinky noise that doesn't much merit being called music or art. No, the clavichord is an instrument for private performance, for the player and perhaps someone sitting alongside him. The clavichord developed primarily as a practice instrument for organists, which allowed them to play quietly in their homes, even at night while others were sleeping. That it was primarily a practice instrument for private purposes (with the exception of some larger later instruments) should not lead one to think any less of the instrument, for among the stringed keyboard instruments, nothing comes close to the clavichord in its sensitivity, intimacy, and expressiveness.
What I love about this performance of Padre Antonio Soler's concertos (on two clavichords!) is that, besides being an incredibly articulate interpretation, it also is one of the few that captures the clavichord at its best: how the player or his intimate companion hears it. Check it out.
Padre Antonio Soler, Concerto No. 1 in C major, for two keyboards
Bernard Brauchli and Esteban Elizondo, clavichords
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