Stunning Harpsichord Recording

There was a label called "wildboar" that has excellent Harpsichord music on Lp and cd. Also Mercs had "Puyana" on Lps and Cds. I would also look at the excellent "Albert Fuller" recording on Reference Recording's along with the Decca label and their recording artist Sylvia Marlowe. There's so many more and I'm sure many Audiogon members will have their favorites.

are you primarily interested in sound or performance ?

if it is sound, consider recordings on the glossa and naive labels.

There's no question that for some reason solo harpsichord is very difficult to record well. I think also that a lot of harpsichords themselves just aren't that enjoyable to listen to. So it's a tough combination.

Anyway - I've had A LOT of harpsichord LP's go through here and I listen to every one at least briefly just because of the above. The good ones are rare, but very satisfying! I'd say my favorites sonically are the EMI Reflexe series with Colin Tilney playing. The William Byrd is a great one that comes to mind. I assume these are available on CD.
In a related but different vein, a wonderful lp is :
J.J. Froeberger Clavichord Music, Thurston Dart playing on the L'Oiseau Lyre label. A very warm and detailed recording of some very interesting (in a mellow way) music.

HAMBURG 1734-Andreas Staier, Harmonia Mundi

This is not only an absolutely stunning fidelity recording but also a virtuoso performance of an incredible instrument.

If your system is truly capable of full range frequency response, this is one hell of a hair raising ride which captures a very real presence with astonishing depth and dynamics rarely captured on CD this well !!

if you want to hear an expert play the harpsichord, listen to pierre hantai, sophie yates or raphael puyana.

since the harpsichord is my favorite instrument, i own 100's of solo harpsichord recordings. most sound overly percussive and focused. they don't sound anything like a live harpsichord.

oh, i forgot to mention trevor pinnock.