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Glenn
Gould Edition - Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier I
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Composer:
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Performer: Glenn
Gould
Sony Classics - #52600 / January 11, 1994
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here for more information |
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It's rather amazing today, when recordings of Bach's Well-Tempered
Clavier practically fall of the shelves, to recall just
how unusual it was back in the 1960s for a pianist to undertake
to record this amazing work. It's probably fair to say that
until Glenn Gould got his fingers around it, Bach's music
was used for teaching purposes more than anything else. What
Gould proves in this essential set is that Bach is decidedly
not just a threat to hold over the head of budding pianists
but a joy to...Read
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Bach:
The 6 Cello Suites / Pablo Casals |
Composer:
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Performer: Pablo
Casals
Emd/Emi Classics - #66215 / September 16, 1997
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here for more information |
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Casals crusaded for this music. When he first picked up a
used copy of the score in a music store, Bach was not very
popular with general audiences, and the cello suites were
never played in public. If cellists knew them at all, they
used them as finger exercises. After two decades of study,
Casals finally gave his first public performances of the suites.
For all we know, they may have been the world premieres. Casals
thoroughly mastered the music, and by the time he made his
recordings, in the...Read
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Bach:
Organ Toccatas & Passacaglia / Christopher Herrick
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Composer:
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher
Herrick
Hyperion (UK) - #66434 / January 7, 1991
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"Toccata" comes from the Italian word meaning "to
play an instrument," and the form itself is nothing more
than a written-out improvisation of what an organist would
be expected to do when called upon to test a new instrument.
First, you try out the action of the keyboard with rapid scales
and runs, then you see how loud, sustained chords sound, and
finally you settle down to a more formal fugue, which lets
you construct a large musical form and employ different mixtures
of...Read
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Bach:
Complete Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin / Grumiaux
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Composer:
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Performer: Arthur
Grumiaux
Uni/Philips - #38736 / February 15, 1994
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Arthur Grumiaux was among the most elegant and refined violinists
who ever recorded. This doesn't preclude his playing the famous
Chaconne with lots of power, which he does. But it
means hearing Bach with all technical difficulties minimized
to give you a clear view of the music. Sometimes, as in Joseph
Szigeti's late recordings (Vanguard Classics OVC 8021/2),
there is a sense of struggle between the violin and the music
that for more dramatic Bach. Grumiaux allows you to hear everything
Bach...Read
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Bach:
Goldberg Variations BWV 988 / Pierre Hantaï
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Composer:
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Performer: Pierre
Hantaï
Opus 111 (Fra) - #2024 / April 11, 2000
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For all the progress period instruments have made in cornering
the market in modern performances of Bach, the piano keeps
a strong presence in the solo keyboard works--particularly
the Goldberg Variations. It seems that (arrangements
for other instruments aside) the most talked-about performances
of the Goldbergs--say, András
Schiff, Rosalyn
Tureck, Angela
Hewitt, and the endlessly debated Glenn
Gould--are on piano. Except for this one. Ever since it
was first released in 1993, Pierre...Read
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Bach:
Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080 / Marie-Claire Alain
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Composer:
Johann
Sebastian Bach
Performer: Marie-Claire
Alain
Wea/Atlantic/Erato - #91946 / July 6, 1993
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here for more information |
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Everything about The Art of Fugue is controversial.
Did Bach finish it or not? If not, should a completion be
attempted, or should the finale fugue be left in its unfinished
state? What order should the various pieces be played in?
Where they intended to be listened to at all? And if "yes,"
what instrument would Bach have preferred? The answers to
all of these questions are: "We don't know, and it really
doesn't matter." Supremely practical musician that he
was, Bach never...Read
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