Composers from the English Renaissance to the German Baroque admired the musical culture of the Italian peninsula. Queen Elizabeth I had lutes, viols and spinets shipped from Venice to London for performances at court. Domenico Scarlatti all of his 550 harpsichord sonatas in service to the woman who would later become the Queen of Spain, Maria Barbara. The young J. S. Bach was introduced to the works of Vivaldi and the Italian Baroque when he was employed as the head of music-making in Weimar. Susan Adams plays a group of pieces from these diverse origins on a copy of an anonymous Italian single manual harpsichord now at the Smithsonian Institution. The light case structure, the brass stringing, crow quill and robust action of the harpsichord contribute a clarity of attack and crunch to this program. Susan Adams was born in Ottawa into a family that encouraged music study. She began playing at the age of four, and started taking lesso...