André Isoir deploys here all his prodigious technique, his innate feeling for the keyboard, and his extraordinary manual dexterity. In order to ascertain the correct position at the console of the instrument, he made a thorough study of eighteenth-century practice, closely observing contemporary paintings and drawings, but also the writings of Johann Nikolaus Forkel, the Kantor’s first biographer, who gives valuable information on the playing techniques of Bach’s time supplied to him by Carl Philipp Emanuel. The result of his research is fingering that gives the phrase an accentuation, a ‘diction’ very close to that of expressive instruments such as the flute or the violin, and, of course, the human voice. It should not be forgotten that, before studying the organ, André Isoir played the trumpet in his home town of Saint-Dizier. This solidly based investigation of keyboard technique and posture forged for Isoir a musical personality quite out of the ordinary that, combined with outstanding virtuosity, produced dazzling playing. His stature was recognised, at the very start of his career, by the award of a number of international prizes (St Albans, Haarlem, etc.). 33 ANDRÉ ISOIR
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