These re-recordings replace my earlier ones of 2006 and 2007.

Bach - BWV 854 - Das Wolhtemperierte Clavier I - Prelude and Fugue No.9 in E major (2:36)
Bach - BWV 878 - Das Wolhtemperierte Clavier II - Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in E major (8:44)

Hi Chris,

Excellent job with this P&F overall. IMO this is definitely the best I've heard from you on your WTC recording in terms of control and evenness.

In the prelude, this is one of the few places where I personally might want to hear a bit more lyricism, legato, and rubato in places, but I think your more unsentimental interpretation works. The only details I heard are in bar 7 the trillo sounds a bit strange, as if one of the notes is left out or something. All your other ornaments are spot-on though. Nice clarity in the 16th run! Maybe just a tad rushed there, but I know it's hard to resist Nice ritard at the end, seems just right to me.

Same with the fugue. Great job. Could perhaps have a bit more retention in places, just seems maybe a bit gushing forward at times, but generally good control, well-planned voicing, and solid tempo.

Good work!

Joe

I forgot to mention that my earlier comment was on the Book I E major. I also just listened to the Book II.

Pretty good on this also, though perhaps not quite as good as the Book I technically. In a few places, the prelude could be a bit more rhythmically secure and even. Some passages were a bit rushed. Good ear for the voices in general, though I may have heard a bit of hand breaking here and there, particularly in the fugue.

Nothing major though. Good work overall.

Joe

Thanks Joe. I've been preparing these for an awful long time so they had better be good. Perfection eludes me as always, I have to leave well enough alone at some stage.

To BWV 854: That´s a real nice job, all is played very properly and with a great balance and eveness. The prelude even has some lyrical moments. The only thing for my taste is, that the fugue has nearly no voicing, but I know, that you don´t consider that for as important than I do. The great achievement of this recording is especially, that you hold this very high tempo in such a perfection!
Bravo, a very good job!

To BWV 878: I like especially the prelude, which has some very nice musical moments. Your formation of embellishments in the repeats causes of a good and creative taste IMO. I have enjoyed that very much.
The fugue also has a good calm flow and is played absolutely properly. (The voicing could be much improved, but I don´t know, if I should mention this every time.)

You have done very good jobs here and I think, you have improved your old versions very much. Touch and tone are also clearly improved. Bravo!

Thanks Andreas. I hear you on the voicing, it's not as if I find that unimportant. But I never want to overdo it, and also being an organist I somewhat rely on the voices to be clear and audible even without extra volume. It would be easier to do in a more leisurely tempo, like you usually opt for, but I also highly value excitement and drive (though happily I am most always slower than in my previous WTC recordings).

techneut wrote:


Well, piano playing is something totally different from playing organ. If you are a good pianist you are not coercibly a good organist and reverse. (My first piano teacher was the assistant organist of the Dome of Cologne, but I can´t say, that he was a real good piano teacher, so I left him after a while. He was very precise and accurate, but he couldn´t teach me a true piano playing, which implies all the differences of touch and voicing! Fortunately I found another piano teacher, who was a concert pianist. From him I could learn true piano playing!) On the piano we have our fingers to create something like "registers" and the "pianoforte"-touch allows us to differenciate dynamic and colour of the tone very directly and individually. So, that´s what makes an artistic piano playing, if you can show, how much you are able to do this. There are not better pieces to do this than fugues by Bach. In piano playing the voicing (also differenciating dynamic range) is absolutely a criterion of quality!



Of course, I also like excitement and drive, if it´s adequate (and that´s always more or less a matter of taste). But a higher tempo does not exclude a good voicing! If I choose a higher tempo, than my voicing is usually differenciated in spite of the higher tempo. I many cases today (not in all, really!) I choose a more moderate tempo, because I discover so many elaborated and deep structures in Bachs works. I don´t want to play them superficially! Artistical piano playing for me doesn´t mean to play as fast as possible. (Though I have to admit, that I have had this ambition here and there, when I was younger. But I have found out, that it doesn´t bring anything!)