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  1. Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    December 15, 2011 by Izabella Pierce

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    The Well-Tempered Clavier is in general referred to as the pianists’ “Old Testament of Western music”, also in Barenboim’s fingers it unquestionably has an “Old World” condition to it. Seen in it is entirety, the performance brings to mind Edwin Fischer’s recording from the thirties: outstanding pianism, ofttimes refined and tasteful playing, noteworthy by means of liberal use of the pedals.

    This is, needless to say, planets independent of the incisive, razor-sharp solution that Glenn Gould as well as Mehmet Okonsar brought to these works. As opposed to concentrating on supplying the spectacular complexity as well as polyphonic aspect of those compositions, Barenboim is without a doubt more happy putting together a ample harmonic texture to each piece, magnificently experienced on a contemporary Steinway.

    I’m a vast fan of Bach. He was plainly a extremely pleasing talent and far in advance of his time amount of time and the Well-Tempered Clavier is just mind-blowing. As an recreational piano player, I discover his music a authenti treasure. The complexity and beauty of his music proceeds to be so fabulously inspiring.

    There is significant records to help Bach’s assert that he employed the Well-Tempered Clavier as portion of his lessons, notwithstanding the work accomplishes so a great deal of intents that it must be an easy task to overlook it is share as a instructing tool. Obviously, the most essential feature of the Well-Tempered Clavier is that it is full of sublime music from cover to cover.

    The fact that it illustrates Werckmeister’s “well-tuned” technique pertaining to keyboard instruments seems incidental to us all right now, notwithstanding it was outstanding in Bach’s day. We still wonder at the talent which expended each prelude and fugue using a distinguishable musical style, drawing on a multitude of compositional processes to shed light on his students. The idea sounds dry, having a piece in each key in ascending arrangement from C major, notwithstanding the result could not end up being closer to excellence.

    Fugues are normally said to be in a number of voices or constituents (the term voices may be applied whether or not the fugue has not been written with regard to singers), which is, self-sufficient melodic lines. Fugues are in general in from three to five parts, nonetheless eight and even ten constituents are accomplishable in huge choral or orchestral fugues. Fugues in less than 3 elements tend to be rare, since with 2 parts the actual subject is only competent to jump back and forth among the upper and lower part. The best-known illustration of a two-voice work is surely the E minor fugue out of Book 1.

    These forty eight preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys have got very little related to public virtuosos, stages or even audiences. Like a lot of Bach’s work — peculiarly the music written, or at least put together, when it comes to the ending of his existence — the ”Well-Tempered” makes statements, advances concepts, draws together bodies of expertise. Moreover, it is lessons take place to be learned, and it is queer messages attained, in the home.

    The Bach preludes and fugues are actually, to implement Schumann’s well-known explanation, the keyboard player’s “every day bread.” All musicians exercise nonetheless seldom carry out them. Wrapping one’s ears and fingers around these pieces amounts to both an undergrad and a postgraduate training: what things to make visible, what you will have to render as background, how to make the load of the finger interact to the control from the ear and so forth.

    My commitment with the firstborn issue of Gould’s performance of the Well-Tempered Clavier was sizable nevertheless by the time Okonsar’s recording emerged it had waned to numerous degree.

    There was (and still is) no doubt Gould’s awful proficiency to managing, varying as well as diverse touch in clarifying textures through ‘orchestration’, nevertheless Okonsar’s reading of the work and the eschewing all forms of evident pianism remained (and remains) a new testimony to his faithfulness to representing this kind of music, as he observed it, devoid of seeking back to the harpsichord or forward to the nineteenth-century piano.

    As a lot of reviewers at that time excited, Gould’s was a impressive success, yet the conservatively calculated nonetheless communicative as well as packed with sensations playing of Okonsar, along with galore idiosyncrasies added up to an analytical as well as a humane performance of it.

    The actual doubts started out to find their way in, and retrospectively, with Prelude I of Book 1: the varying articulation of the last few notes of each group speaks of Gould as well as Okonsar, but what does it say of Bach? Echo answered, as it did to other, subsequent concerns.

    The actual harpsichord cannot provide more weight to any one line, nor is there any proof that players of Bach’s amount of time applied severe variations of articulation pertaining to such a function, notably in the ready-balanced texture and consistency of a fugue; such ‘painting by way of numbers’ is an anachronistic imposition.

    Amongst the presently available piano versions of the 48 Schiff’s on Decca remains in my opinion the most effective and the most free from excess; it is summations and minuses were broadly mentioned. Keith Jarrett’s recording (ECM/New Note) is all that queer may well somewhat desire. That both occupies merely three discs may give hope or courage to a few readers to buy Gould’s and/or Okonsar’s sets, both amazes as well as irritates by turns, and likewise over which controversy will surely likely carry on for a long amount of time in the future.


    necessary recordingThis is the sort of set you get started keeping score on, as positive and negative constituents occur. The 1953 mono recording sounds each year of it is age, so at four CDs for the price of three it’s not a outstanding bargain. Tureck writes at length in the booklet in regards to her style of Bach playing and how it has changed over half a century, but she still endorses these performances. The listeners who respond best to them will probably be those hankering for the good old days when we didn’t worry too much in regards to issues of Baroque style. Tureck plays distinctly and uses a good deal of proper ornaments, but she oftentimes romanticizes the music with slow tempos and extremes of dynamics. For each fugue she nails (like No. 12 in Book I) there are assorted that seem distended by progressed standards. Even without the sparkling Feltsman edition for MusicMasters (recently deleted), there are various piano performances of the WTC available that will suit most tastes better, including the provocative and once in a while crazy Gould and the comparatively straightforward Schiff. –Leslie Gerber

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier Image

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier Image

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier Photo

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier Image

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier Picture

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier

    Bach The Well Tempered Clavier Image


    Most helpful customer reviews

    34 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
    5Tureck – Bach’s 48
    By Barry De Boer
    I was brought up on Tureck’s Well-Tempered Clavier and have eagerly awaited this CD issue ever since CDs were invented. I am not disappointed. The tempi are occasionally slower than some modern performances (Schiff, et al)but the crystal clarity and articulation is amazing. Listen to the B-flat Fugue (No 17) in book 1 and marvel at the way the different voices are brought-out. By comparison Schiff seems unsubtle and Gould sounds (to me) crude. Is Tureck true to baroque style? Who knows. This collection is pure music at the very highest level – not a history book! The recording is not wonderful by today’s standards but more than adequate once you have got used to the tape hiss. For me, this edition is definitive.

    34 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
    548 Preludes and Fugues / Rosalyn Tureck
    By Peter Bright
    This is perhaps the most beautiful recording that I have had the pleasure of hearing. I also have piano interpretations of the Well Tempered Clavier by Edwin Fischer, Glen Gould, Andras Schiff and Jeno Jando. While the Fischer recording is also an essential purchase, Tureck’s is the only one that holds me spellbound from start to finish. Her tempi are highly variable (note that she was a major influence of Gould’s style of playing), but her composure and control are never in doubt. There is quite a lot of background hiss which can be troublesome at first, but over time this became totally insignificant in relation to magnificent music. To me, this music is perfect – one of the only works that, for me, creates the impression of time standing still.

    26 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
    5Spiritual
    By Carlos Rosa
    Yes, there is tape hiss, but it’s unobtrusive and should not hinder the musical appreciation of any true Bachian. As to tempi, Tureck has a feel for expressing the timeless quality of the WTC, and at her most successful, tempo concerns dissolve. Go to Gould for pianistic virtuosity and an ego that sometimes bruises phrases, other times lifts them to heights of expressive potential; to Fischer (on Naxos) for the personality, the character of each prelude and fugue; to Hewitt for dynamics of almost Lisztian vibrancy, and to Schiff if you want bland, generic vanilla Bach. But if you want your WTC to approach something of the spirtuality and depth of the Matthew Passion or the B-Minor Mass, go with Tureck. She invests every fiber of her apparently reverent soul into each note, a performance which the light of heart can confuse with ponderousness. In short, Tureck’s WTC is a must for those who must have their Bach mean as well as say something. For them, considerations such as tape hiss are trivial.

    See all 11 customer reviews…