Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier | Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier | Johann Sebastian Bach | Best performance ever

classical music:

Bach: Well-Tempere...

	Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier Johann Sebastian Bach RCA Victor Europe, 1992 average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Red-Blooded Bach by a Master

A very generous friend gave me this set several years ago and I will be forever in her debt. I had never considered buying Sviatoslav Richter playing Bach. For me he simply didn't seem to come out of the right tradition to play the Master of Leipzig. But I was mistaken, completely mistaken. This set of the WTC has become one of my most treasured possessions. For months it was in my car - a perfect way to listen to the Preludes and Fugues, a few at a time while driving short distances around town - and by now these performances are burned into my aural memory, as if they had always been there. There is such a feeling of inevitability about Richter's playing that I now cannot imagine them played any other way. Well, that's not entirely true, but close. Unlike Huibert Jonkers, whose review was posted here some months ago, I was a Glenn Gould groupie who thought his way with Bach was the best way. And though I still admire Gould, I must say that Richter has converted me. It's hard to put one's finger on what it is about Richter's playing except that it is so straightforward and full of good ol' artery-clogging cholesterol and yet so nuanced and highlighted, that it is impossible to resist. It's Romantic, I guess, and that's totally out of fashion these days. But I don't care about that. In fact, as an old pianist who has played the WTC at the keyboard for nigh on sixty years, I continue to have a hard time listening to WTC on the harpsichord. I suspect I'm not alone in that. We've been swept along in recent years by the 'historically-informed performance' folks and yet there are some of us who are not entirely convinced that the old-fashioned way with Bach isn't the best. Richter certainly fits in the 'old-fashioned' camp and that's fine with me.

Others have written here about individual details of these performances and I have little to add there. I am, like others, struck by Richter's wide dynamics and sometimes extreme tempi. For instance, the second prelude in WTC I goes faster than I've ever heard it and it is all the more exciting as a result. The overall shape of the performances, though, reveal a penetrating intellect and flawless technique put at the service of the music, granted Richter's own conception of the music, but who's to say that's not what Bach would have wanted?

I urgently recommend this box, especially since it is so attractively priced.

Scott Morrison

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Best performance ever

As some of the reviwers said I also agree that this is the best performance of the TWC. I don't know if Bach would concieve the speed and magical colors that Richter achieves but Bach is a box of of surprises and if you've got the the talent you can find it all; this is what Richter is able to do. And he shares with us Bach's possibilities, and show us that he (Bach) is the the Master of all ages.

Richter and Baroque

I have long held Richter to be a master of baroque music and polyphonic music in general. Since fugues are a model for conflicting layered themes and their intertwining with other themes, this music can be very difficult and a surprising number of pianists cannot master them. Richter is very serious in anything he plays and you can see that throughout the cycle he is very consistent and never gets lazy. This is what makes Richter so special.... is his mastery and understanding of braod genres of music ( a legitimate criticism, I guess to a certain extent, to Horowitz and Rubinstien who molded their repertoire to suit what they played well). Richter's Baroque is very different than conventional Baroque - more intense, less benign, even agressive at times. I guess it is worthwhile to hold a view versions if one wishes - harpsichord, Richter, maybe Schiff. Overall, this CD is close to my heart.

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Glenn Gould ??? never heard of him ....

That is to say I won't be listening to Glenn Gould's Bach any time soon since I've discovered this gem of a Bach recording. It would be an understatement to call it a revelation when I first heard this recording, wow!. The first prelude immediately sets the tone, I knew right away at that moment I was listening to something special and I had to have it!. I haven't felt so anxious about a classical recording in a very , VERY long time, over a timespan of just 8yrs that is, but still!. Even the prospect of a new Slayer recording didn't excite me this much!. Interesting detail, Kerry King, the infamous guitartamer from Slayer listens to Bach as well, I guess he rocks as hell!.

My opening remark is a bit harsh regarding Glenn Gould, but that was how I felt when I got acquainted with Richter's Bach, it's like going from one extreme to the other, from Gould being the technically proficient and stupendiously fast notecracker with overwhelming dynamics and unearthly beautifull tone (yeah, he is a genius ,still, and I prefer his eccentricity in playing) to Richter who possesses all of wich Gould represents, but with that little bit more extra in musical insight, touch and genius that makes his version of the Welltempered Klavier THE golden standard.
Previously I preferred Edwin Fischer's version wich is also magnificent, but the average recording quality (it was recorded between '33 and '36 so what do you expect, but still a fantastic achievement!) bummed me a bit from fully appreciating it, but before Richter this one was my golden standard, I should say check it out for about half the price of Richter's.

Although I still don't think that Gould has been dethroned as the greatest Bach performer (for me personally that is),because he stands in a league of his own, I do know now why I felt an unexplainable unease when listening to most (not all) of Gould's "mechanical" Bach, I thought I was lacking musical insight or taste to fully appreciate his genius , but now Richter has made it all clear to me.

ps: please do check out Richter's DVD 'The Enigma'. As a person not as appealing as Gould, though ;)

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Great Performance; Richter vs. Gould

I have heard most of the works by over 105 composers and for me Bach is the God of all composers; there is no one better than him. WTC is one of his piano masterpieces. So first, before getting carried away with the performer, we must make sure that ALL the credit goes to composer for putting together such a scintillating work of art. Now about the performer: Richter is certainly one of the finest pianists of this century. I love the way he performs Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Ravel, and many other composers. He was also very well known in Russia and Europe for his performances of Bach. Nevertheless, no matter how much I love his flawless technique and Germanic metronome-style precision, I still have to admit that his Bach performances are romantic. This is not a bad thing because Richter seems to know how to woo the listener no matter how he plays a piece. Even Glenn Gould, who could only accept staccato style performances and hated the slow piano music of Schubert, said that he was hypnotized when he heard Richter's Schubert, even though Richter performed the piece extra slow, as if the piece by itself was not slow enough! This is the epitome of Richter's work. Nevertheless, I must say that when it comes to Bach, there is absolutely no one that can even come close to Glenn Gould. Yes, Richter's performance is lovely, but it still smears out all the notes together, like any good romantic performance would do. Remember, by 1950s Bach's piano pieces were extinct and it was taboo to perform them for the audience since they were outdated. This was so DESPITE Richter's and others' Bach performances. It took Gould to come along and stun the audiences with the beauty of Bach's Goldberg Variations. It inspired a new generation of not only Bach lovers, but also great performers like Yo-Yo Ma. Gould did for Bach the same as Mendelssohn did almost 200 years ago when he was the first person to ever perform one of Bach's choral works after the Kapellmeister's death.

Bach is hailed not only as a great composer, but also as a mathematically-musical genius. His fugues contain so many interwoven themes that Richter's performance can't allow you to listen to all of them simultaneously. In contrast, Gould's crystal clear, note-perfect performance is ideal for hearing Bach in its entire glory. While I can bring numerous examples, I'll advise you to compare Gould vs. Richter on Prelude No.20, Book 1. In Richter's performance you can barely hear the left hand melody, while Gould makes you hear both voices - as if the left hand melody is trying to fight the right one, perhaps some sort of spiritual struggle within Bach when he composed the piece. So, do you think that it is correct to miss details like this? I don't know about you, but when I listen to a piece by Bach, I want to make sure that I can hear everything that this genius encoded in his music. Just imagine Brandenburg Concertos being performed with all the emphasis on just one or two of the instruments, a concerto style. That would be a poor performance.
For those of you who think that Glenn plays too fast, just compare Prelude No.22, Book 1. Richter's performance is great, but when you hear Gould's slower performance, you can feel all the minutiae of the drama: as if the composer is barely breathing, stopping at times, and then lashing with ever more powerful force. I had goosebumps when I heard this piece by Gould - so moving, so dramatic. Richter, on the other hand, misses the details.

In conclusion, despite the lacks in this recording, including the imperfect sound quality, I would still recommend it as the best old-style performance. But anyone who loves Bach, absolutely must have Gould's performance of all the piano pieces. Gould was a Bach specialist - that is all he pretty much played. He spent many hours editing all the tapes trying to make everything perfect. He would make dozens of takes of the same segment until it was perfect. Gould also made sure that besides having perfect, separate 48 preludes and fugues, everything fits together as a monolithically magnificent structure. Richter is the wonderful general surgeon who can play everything with grace and amazing technique; Gould is the ultra-specialized brain surgeon that doesn't want to know anything but neurons. He is the ultimate Bach interpreter.

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6

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