A further step to my aim to complete WTC II one nice day: prelude and fugue in g-major, BWV 884. My last Bach-recording was P&F f-sharp-major. I´m still stepping forward in chromatic order, but I could overjump P&F f-minor, because I have recorded that pair for this site a longer times ago. Hope, you will enjoy it. Watch my videos, if you like. You can watch them in 2D or in 3D as you like. And they can be watched also in HD-quality.

Comments are appreciated as always!


Here are the video-links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZH8no4e ... ideo_title (prelude g-major only 2D)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyVua4fz ... ideo_title (fugue g-major in 3D or 2D)

The mp3-file below is exactly the sound-track of the videos above.

Bach - Prelude & Fugue in G Major, BWV 884

This is up, Andreas. Sounded nice!

Well done ! Many good things here as usual, but I have some little nits to pick. You may not agree to all that I bring up, but that's OK.

Prelude
Bar 7 has C natural in the RH, not C sharp. Did you decide to deviate from Urtext (as some others do) ? You play the C# so softly that it sounds as if you are not convinced of it.
Bar 13 has a weak/inaudible note in RH
Bar 20 - you suddenly slow down a whole lot, and never regain the original tempo. In the repeat you do it again though it's less obvious because you started not as fast as the first time.
Bar 1 (repeat) - weak note

Fugue
Bar 6: RH C# should be C
Bars 16-23 the middle voice could be brought out better (though you do that very nicely in bars 26-30)
Bar 30 you seem to slow down again

In general I find your tempo fluctuations a bit too much of a good thing, especially in the fugue. The ornaments often slightly disrupt the flow. I like the longer trills with a nachslag but that is personal of course. In the prelude some of your LH 16ths seem a bit too heavy and prominent.

It won't be long now before you can pick my new recording of this pair to bits

Hi Chris,
thanks for your remarks, which are valuable for me as usual. Indeed, I agree not to all of them.



I was very convinced of this c-sharp, but indeed there is a c natural in the score.



I can´t discover it.



I can´t find any tempo fluctuation in the repeat, may be the first time there is a very slight rubato, but I really have to think, if this is a (big) deal.



I don´t hear it, sorry, but may be I´m becoming old.



Right, thank you!



In the bars 16-23 I wanted to bring out the subject entry in the bass, in the bars 26-30 I wanted to underline the sighing motifs in the middle voice. So it´s all intentional here.



Can´t say that, these are my usual very small rubati, here to feel the sighings.



I personally like them and I think, they are in the limit of good Bach-playing.



I have to think about that.



I´m looking forward to that! ( )

Pianolady wrote:


Thank you very much, Monica, and best regards!

Forgot to say, it's in the repeat only. I don't hear the second note in the RH (but am going deaf, probably).


It's not so bad in the repeat, but the first time you do suddenly get a lot slower. At the start of the repeat, you are fast again, but a little less than at the start, and again you drop the tempo slightly.


It's the 3rd note in the RH, the F#. I have to point out your weak notes, because you do that to me too

I don´t know, if your "weak notes" are weak enough to be pointed out! (I still can hear them very well.) During the repeats I´m playing with left pedal, btw (as an effort to change the colour of tone during the repeats), may be that causes this "weak" impression to you.
Concerning the tempo I realize a difference between the end of the first time of part two compared with the beginning of the repeat, that´s right, the other differences I couldn´t discover, though I have knocked with a pencil while listening to my own recording. The little rubati between are intentional! But, indeed, the beginning of the repeat is a bit too fast compared with the end of the first part. Seems I have made unconsciously a little ritardando at the end of the first time, which one shouldn´t do. Such more or less little tempo fluctuations are always the danger, if you record the repeats in a different take, which I have done here to bring a change of the camera angel. May be I should rerecord the prelude.

Hello Andreas,
I just [finally] had a listen; nothing like a little Bach to start the work-week with. This is such beautiful and quintissential Bach, that it lifts the soul. My remarks to you will be less microscopic and more from the gallary point of listening. You do a beautiful job of bringing out the moving parts and voicing down the repeated-notes parts. The phrasing and inflection is very musical. My only criticism is that, especially given the motoric nature of the prelude, you have fluctuations of the tempo that are not suitable to the quality of the rest of your performance. There is less of this in the fugue but still some present. I don't mean to say that you must perform it "absolutely metronomically" but I do think you must practice it such (i.e., with metronome) in order to vanquish every difficulty and free yourself for pure expression. Thank you for your continued posts.

Hi Eddy,
thank you very much for your appreciated comment. Feedback on PS can be really valuable and it keeps me up to think about my recordings and my playing in general! I agree to all you have written. Indeed, the tempo fluctuations in the prelude are too much and I will re-record the prelude as soon as I have time for it. (Can take a while.)

Best regards, Andreas