Atelier Philidor
restores, edits and publishes first-class Early Music Performers' Facsimiles (repertoire before 1800) intended for musicians who wish to play and study important works of the past in faithful copies of the publications in which they were first issued. Its mission: to preserve and make accessible Early Music Treasures and offer to musicians the pleasure of playing from original notation.
Atelier Philidor publications are available in Europe, at the music bookshop AUX NOTES D'ORPHÉE in Montpellier (France). Contact them to order facsimiles hard copies.
ON PLAYING FROM ORIGINAL NOTATION
Modern editions of earlier repertoire, being themselves already interpretations, can easily mislead the player into taking stylistic wrong turns.
Rolf Lislevand, lutenist [In: Album Alfabeto, Label Naïve]I'm not so convinced that a competent continuo player is always better off reading from a score than from an original figured bass part. My own experience is that one listens more carefully and integrates better in an ensemble—that is, functions less as an "accompanist" (or coach/accompanist) in the modern sense—when reading from such a part. Clearly the character of one's continuo realization will be different when one responds to what one hears other instruments do than when one manufactures the part on the basis of one's reading and analysis of the full score.
Alexander Silbiger, harpsichordist, Professor at Duke University [In: Historical Performance Vol. 7, No.2, Fall 1994]