These are so foundational it's hard to choose a single interpretation. I'm still a real piano fan when it comes to these pieces, regardless of the fact that they were written for harpsichord. I think of it this way: Beethoven somehow composed not for the relatively flimsy pianos he had at his disposal, but for the concert grand we have today, with all 50,000 pounds of tension against that metal harp - it just hadn't been developed yet. These pieces are also rewarding to those of us (and we are multitudes) who will never be able to play them up to tempo - the sheer pleasure of working your way through them is enough.
Completely agree. (I would enjoy reading someone else’s Year of Beethoven…)
I love playing through the inventions/sinfonias that are still way above my skill set, despite honking the accidentals and playing so slowly. You get a glimpse of understanding the mechanics of why they pieces are so great, it’s a second level of pleasure.
I had a similar experience with trying to find a version of WTC (I happened to find Ashkenazy's in a record store). It's funny though how your 'first' version of a work like this influences how you hear everyone else's.
These days I think harpsichord makes more sense in many of these pieces - as great as the various textures from Gould vs Fellner vs Richter are, there's something about the sheer sound and density of the harpsichord that's totally different and it is technically what Bach wrote them for...I went to a Mahan Esfahani recital recently and it kind of opened my ears to how these composers wrote for *harpsichord* in the same sense that (to use your example) Jimi Hendrix wrote for *feedback-laden electric guitar*.
ps. re: footnote 3, I kind of thought that was part of the point of that scene, she's acting like she's this total Godess of music who has figured it all out and deserves to be able to boss everyone else's interpretations about...but is she really?
Yes! I thought Gould was the only game in town for too long. (That's probably an artifact of the lost era of physical music shopping.) And I never thought I'd prefer listening to harpsichord for anything -- this particular opening of my ears this year has been a major takeaway for me.
Interesting (and plausible) take on Tar... If her exposition on the Prelude was deliberately lame, then the joke's on me for not giving enough credit to the screenwriters and director.
I love Hantaii playing Marais, but I have to say that I thought his rendition of the C minor prelude was a mess. Way too fast, it sounded like a wall of noise. Part of that is the harpsichord sound, but I can't say I liked it. I too thought the sun rose and set with Gould. And there're still some pieces where I think he reaches the apex, like the C major fugue, and the Aria from the Goldbergs. But my current favorite for Bach on the keyboard is Andras Schiff.
May I suggest Andras Schiff's recording? My favourite by far - and he shows how the piano can interpret Bach without pretending to be a harpsichord! Another one I like - so far I've only heard her Book 1 - is Ewa Poblocka. I won't name the pianist on the set that I had to give away because I couldn't bear certain ones - every Bach performance is and should be different!
My formal knowledge of music is terminally lacking, but I get the impression that Bach wrote what I can only describe as all of the music. And everyone else has been poaching off him ever since, even and especially when they're not aware of it.
Yes… You can think of JSB as a singular figure at a particular moment who distilled everything that came before him and changed everything after him. Serious musicians have to deal with Bach— serious saxophonists have to deal with Coltrane.
Loved all of this, thanks Evan. And I don't even like the organ. Eli's recording was truly lovely, (and of course I heard a phantom violin accompanying throughout for the Ave Maria and am now inspired to play it.) Also, my son goes nowhere without his toy lobster... should I be concerned?
Ugh, the G minor prelude breaks my heart every time!
Gould’s performances confound me as well — especially as in my older age, I’ve come to prefer Bach with the pearly sound and featherlight touch of Pollini and Ólafsson.
Yesterday, I randomly wondered, "Where's Evan's post on the WTC? Will he split them up? I think he will." Well, here it is, and I'm glad they'll be split! They both deserve their own posts. I like the idea of comparing piano and harpsichord versions (which I prefer). I've been mirroring some of your listening, and after listening to all of book 1 today, I uncovered that my favorites are, in sequential order,: C minor (especially; that prelude is so intense, and that fugue is so catchy [like # 542]), E minor, G, and Ab. Couldn't figure out why the B minor was so comparatively long. Is it because it's last?
YouTube listeners (please correct me if I'm wrong), this appears to be a full version of Hantai playing Book 1, with timestamps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0ufknMW0FI
^I've listened to this many times whenever I need to decompress. It's a delight.
RE note 3, I think the C prelude isn't a good way to get people to really LOVE Bach. It's played everywhere, and "surely he wrote better things." I was disappointed they chose that piece; then again, it's most people's go-to. I did like her speech when she refuted his logic, though. And the movie got me to love Mahler 5. Forever.
PS Just looked up a sample of Segovia playing the Chaconne. I'm not sure what to think yet. It's hard for me to fathom anything equaling this piece played on the violin.
This is great, Brittany. I imagine there's plenty of academic writing about why the B Minor is so much longer, I haven't gotten into the scholarship. It does get pretty deep into the counterpoint, so maybe he's wrapping it up in a special way.
I want to use the second WTC book post to talk more about Gould, whom you have to deal with at some point as a contemporary Bach listener.
I'm updating the youtube link -- thanks for finding it!
I got to the Chaconne through Segovia, it's close to my heart, though I understand it's weird if you're coming from the other direction. I don't love Brahms' adaptation for the left hand piano. I think I'm going to feature Perlman on violin for the Chaconne writeup at the end of the year.
Appreciating Bach in his entirety week after week, every once in a while, you have to step back to grasp the enormous contribution to the world he gave. It overwhelms.
Evan, i´m so delighted with this instance of your project.
My own journey through WTC has been quite relatable to yours, and I also recently found out Hantai´s WTC via Youtube!!.( He has been a role model in studying these works on my (oops) sampled but decent harpsichord ).
It seems we belong to the same generation, ( and we are lucky to have experienced the thrill of : scarcity = deeper appreciation ). My progression was a very long Gould infatuation from my teens (WTC on a heavy CBS Masterworks CD BOX) , until I started listening to András Schiff at 35.
But later I discovered the incredible Rosalyn Tureck , perhaps the only influence admitted by Gould and quite opaqued by his commercial success. As brilliant as the piano performance of Bach might be, I’m not too fond of the excess "beautification", probably a romantic gen in the Piano´s DNA, and trait hard to avoid on the instrument without sounding "dry" perhaps ?.
After I bumped into the Bach Netherlands Society’s films of every WTC prelude and fugue, then I couldn’t resist anymore. Unlike almost any other composer, Bach works even on crappy 8 bit synthesis, and his musical message even cuts through a sloppy performance. Although the piano will always be a magnificent vehicle for his ideas, perhaps the simpler timbral quality of the harpsichord (less overtones) that serves polyphony better, plus a myriad of non equal tunings that colours each key independently, makes J.S´s music much warmer, closer to its sonic spirit, at least to my own heart. In Hantai´s hands, this is a real treasure to contemplate.
These are so foundational it's hard to choose a single interpretation. I'm still a real piano fan when it comes to these pieces, regardless of the fact that they were written for harpsichord. I think of it this way: Beethoven somehow composed not for the relatively flimsy pianos he had at his disposal, but for the concert grand we have today, with all 50,000 pounds of tension against that metal harp - it just hadn't been developed yet. These pieces are also rewarding to those of us (and we are multitudes) who will never be able to play them up to tempo - the sheer pleasure of working your way through them is enough.
Completely agree. (I would enjoy reading someone else’s Year of Beethoven…)
I love playing through the inventions/sinfonias that are still way above my skill set, despite honking the accidentals and playing so slowly. You get a glimpse of understanding the mechanics of why they pieces are so great, it’s a second level of pleasure.
I had a similar experience with trying to find a version of WTC (I happened to find Ashkenazy's in a record store). It's funny though how your 'first' version of a work like this influences how you hear everyone else's.
These days I think harpsichord makes more sense in many of these pieces - as great as the various textures from Gould vs Fellner vs Richter are, there's something about the sheer sound and density of the harpsichord that's totally different and it is technically what Bach wrote them for...I went to a Mahan Esfahani recital recently and it kind of opened my ears to how these composers wrote for *harpsichord* in the same sense that (to use your example) Jimi Hendrix wrote for *feedback-laden electric guitar*.
ps. re: footnote 3, I kind of thought that was part of the point of that scene, she's acting like she's this total Godess of music who has figured it all out and deserves to be able to boss everyone else's interpretations about...but is she really?
Yes! I thought Gould was the only game in town for too long. (That's probably an artifact of the lost era of physical music shopping.) And I never thought I'd prefer listening to harpsichord for anything -- this particular opening of my ears this year has been a major takeaway for me.
Interesting (and plausible) take on Tar... If her exposition on the Prelude was deliberately lame, then the joke's on me for not giving enough credit to the screenwriters and director.
I love Hantaii playing Marais, but I have to say that I thought his rendition of the C minor prelude was a mess. Way too fast, it sounded like a wall of noise. Part of that is the harpsichord sound, but I can't say I liked it. I too thought the sun rose and set with Gould. And there're still some pieces where I think he reaches the apex, like the C major fugue, and the Aria from the Goldbergs. But my current favorite for Bach on the keyboard is Andras Schiff.
I bet I’ll come back round to Gould one day… it’s all a journey.
May I suggest Andras Schiff's recording? My favourite by far - and he shows how the piano can interpret Bach without pretending to be a harpsichord! Another one I like - so far I've only heard her Book 1 - is Ewa Poblocka. I won't name the pianist on the set that I had to give away because I couldn't bear certain ones - every Bach performance is and should be different!
Thanks Nicola! Schiff is light and bouncy on that recording -- I'll be featuring him on my survey of the English Suites soon.
I don't know Poblocka -- will check her out!
My formal knowledge of music is terminally lacking, but I get the impression that Bach wrote what I can only describe as all of the music. And everyone else has been poaching off him ever since, even and especially when they're not aware of it.
Yes… You can think of JSB as a singular figure at a particular moment who distilled everything that came before him and changed everything after him. Serious musicians have to deal with Bach— serious saxophonists have to deal with Coltrane.
Loved all of this, thanks Evan. And I don't even like the organ. Eli's recording was truly lovely, (and of course I heard a phantom violin accompanying throughout for the Ave Maria and am now inspired to play it.) Also, my son goes nowhere without his toy lobster... should I be concerned?
I don't think your boy will turn into a tormented Russian genius but we can always hope.
Ugh, the G minor prelude breaks my heart every time!
Gould’s performances confound me as well — especially as in my older age, I’ve come to prefer Bach with the pearly sound and featherlight touch of Pollini and Ólafsson.
A lovely tribute to these pieces, Evan.
And, then I got caught up reading the article abut Richter and the lobster and have subsequently stayed up much too late!
Thanks Al!!
Yesterday, I randomly wondered, "Where's Evan's post on the WTC? Will he split them up? I think he will." Well, here it is, and I'm glad they'll be split! They both deserve their own posts. I like the idea of comparing piano and harpsichord versions (which I prefer). I've been mirroring some of your listening, and after listening to all of book 1 today, I uncovered that my favorites are, in sequential order,: C minor (especially; that prelude is so intense, and that fugue is so catchy [like # 542]), E minor, G, and Ab. Couldn't figure out why the B minor was so comparatively long. Is it because it's last?
YouTube listeners (please correct me if I'm wrong), this appears to be a full version of Hantai playing Book 1, with timestamps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0ufknMW0FI
^I've listened to this many times whenever I need to decompress. It's a delight.
RE note 3, I think the C prelude isn't a good way to get people to really LOVE Bach. It's played everywhere, and "surely he wrote better things." I was disappointed they chose that piece; then again, it's most people's go-to. I did like her speech when she refuted his logic, though. And the movie got me to love Mahler 5. Forever.
PS Just looked up a sample of Segovia playing the Chaconne. I'm not sure what to think yet. It's hard for me to fathom anything equaling this piece played on the violin.
This is great, Brittany. I imagine there's plenty of academic writing about why the B Minor is so much longer, I haven't gotten into the scholarship. It does get pretty deep into the counterpoint, so maybe he's wrapping it up in a special way.
I want to use the second WTC book post to talk more about Gould, whom you have to deal with at some point as a contemporary Bach listener.
I'm updating the youtube link -- thanks for finding it!
I got to the Chaconne through Segovia, it's close to my heart, though I understand it's weird if you're coming from the other direction. I don't love Brahms' adaptation for the left hand piano. I think I'm going to feature Perlman on violin for the Chaconne writeup at the end of the year.
Glad I could help with the link!
Looking forward to reading those 2 posts as well as all the others in between. I know you'll go into everything thoroughly.
I haven't been reading as diligently because I've been embroiled in preparing for a move, but at some point I'll catch up.
Good luck on your move!
Appreciating Bach in his entirety week after week, every once in a while, you have to step back to grasp the enormous contribution to the world he gave. It overwhelms.
BRAVO, ELI!!!!
Thanks Herb!
Evan, i´m so delighted with this instance of your project.
My own journey through WTC has been quite relatable to yours, and I also recently found out Hantai´s WTC via Youtube!!.( He has been a role model in studying these works on my (oops) sampled but decent harpsichord ).
It seems we belong to the same generation, ( and we are lucky to have experienced the thrill of : scarcity = deeper appreciation ). My progression was a very long Gould infatuation from my teens (WTC on a heavy CBS Masterworks CD BOX) , until I started listening to András Schiff at 35.
But later I discovered the incredible Rosalyn Tureck , perhaps the only influence admitted by Gould and quite opaqued by his commercial success. As brilliant as the piano performance of Bach might be, I’m not too fond of the excess "beautification", probably a romantic gen in the Piano´s DNA, and trait hard to avoid on the instrument without sounding "dry" perhaps ?.
After I bumped into the Bach Netherlands Society’s films of every WTC prelude and fugue, then I couldn’t resist anymore. Unlike almost any other composer, Bach works even on crappy 8 bit synthesis, and his musical message even cuts through a sloppy performance. Although the piano will always be a magnificent vehicle for his ideas, perhaps the simpler timbral quality of the harpsichord (less overtones) that serves polyphony better, plus a myriad of non equal tunings that colours each key independently, makes J.S´s music much warmer, closer to its sonic spirit, at least to my own heart. In Hantai´s hands, this is a real treasure to contemplate.
Thanks Sergio. Love those videos of the Netherlands groups. They sound great and are well filmed in addition to being excellent performances