Actually, I put up an earlier account of the prelude but in a different forum at P.S., about a year ago, I think, which I recorded at my new piano with new equipment. That's gone now from "the box," so you can't listen to it to compare. It's would have been close to this one.

In any case, the C Major prelude is brutal, in my opinion. I've tried to figure it out over the years and I have pretty much given up. So much in Book 2 is unfathomable, yet gorgeous of course. However, I did find this particular version on my desktop, where I tend to store various attempts I've made of various pieces over the years. I listened to it again and thought, "This is not so terribly bad after all." Even though, quite frankly, I still don't understand the piece.

This version I did at the keyboard on a sampled piano. I regret to say that I prefer this performance to the other more "real" one I posted at a different forum here (to demonstrate the accuracy of self-tuned pianos, if I recall).

https://www.box.com/s/rym9tgh88dyb8y5id3vc

JG

Hi John,

I had a listen to your WTC prelude. I think it sounds nice, your playing and piano. The piano is a much better virtual sampler than mine. There were some parts where I thought the pedalling could be cleaner, and I agree with your assessment, that this music is brutal! Overall, I enjoyed it, the only thing missing was ofc the fugue!

I agree with your assessment. I don't know a professional account of this prelude that I like, except Feinberg's unusual one. All--and I mean ALL--the others leave me cold. Barenboim pulls out all the stops on this piece and, after Feinberg, does the second-most-interesting account--but with huge amounts of Barenboim, many notes in the bass transformed into octaves. There are some interesting really slow accounts which take the listener on a long voyage: Julia Cload's version is amazingly "intellectual" in this way, for want of a better term, analyzying every note.

Those slow accounts, which pay little attention to metre, are fantastic musical inquiries, but something about this music defies musical penetration at any speed, for me at least. Having said that, I still think it's probably important to keep a strict tempo with this one, and pray that it works out!

I tried to do that. But I may, I will, want to work more on this nut... to try to crack it--before moving on to the fugue, which musically not at all as difficult as the prelude.