Harpsichordist Pinnock Back in Los Angeles

When it comes to making music, says Trevor Pinnock, “I’m a gut man, not a mind man.”

“Of course, making music requires both organs, with the gut and the brain equally engaged. And mindlessness is the last quality I want to project. But the gut response comes first in music. Without it, no performance is authentic--that is, true to the moment.”

Returning to Los Angeles just five weeks after his last concert here, the British harpsichordist acknowledges that his heroes among harpsichordists of the past are Wanda Landowska, Gustav Leonhardt and Rafael Puyana. These three, he explains, “so different in their personal styles, all made music happen by transcending the mechanical limitations of wood-and-wire instruments.”

“That’s the challenge of solo playing: to approach each performance of a piece of music as an act of creation . . . at the instrument, to create singing, color, the rise and fall in a phrase. It’s a journey of adventure, and I’m always greedy for it.”

Tonight at 8 in Bing Theater at the County Museum of Art, Pinnock, 41, will play a solo recital encompassing what he describes as a wide range of harpsichord literature: music by Handel, Rameau, Bach and Scarlatti, plus “French trifles.”

Pinnock says his most recent Los Angeles appearance (March 1 at Ambassador Auditorium) “turned out to be one of those special performances when all things seem to go right.”

“Of course, there is a standard below which we hope never to go during a tour, or any time. But we have to admit that some performances hit a peak. This was one.”

Pinnock says enthusiastic audiences and acoustically responsive halls contribute to strong performances.

“But we like to think we can make it happen even when those other things aren’t there. I mean, we should be able to create our own aura, regardless of the surroundings. If we don’t feel that way, we can get lazy.”

Besides his solo career, Pinnock is the leader of the English Concert, which he founded in 1973. While he says he could continue to tour and perform with the ensemble for “up to five months a year, our work is spread all over the year.” Plans are under way to create “a new ensemble, this one to be New York-based, and conducted by myself and others--not tied exclusively to one leader. It will be called the Classical Band and will be a size up from (the 20-member) English Concert.”

However, the permanency of the English Concert is a fact, Pinnock says.

“Actually, though we play a lot of music, we have not yet performed everything we might. In the Baroque, a lot of repertory still awaits. And we don’t mind a bit when we repeat music.”