To Germans, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a jealously guarded possession, and judgments of any new Bach performer are sharply critical, especially if the performer is a foreigner. But last week a Munich audience applauded a harpsichord recital played by a middle-aged American housewife. As Virginia Pleasants performed Bach's French Overture and a Rameau suite, cognoscenti listened attentively, demanded seven curtain calls.
For much of her life, 45-year-old Virginia Pleasants, an Ohio-born graduate of the Cincinnati College of Music, was a modest and unassuming concert pianist. Her careful, reflective playing of...
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