The Well Tempered Klavier

Interesting. I liked her first set but as I say, there was something not quite right about them - a certain dullness. Are these new ones live??

The recording was done in a studio.

Actually as I listen more I begin to appreciate Hewitts' playing more and I feel the recording qualiry is quite good.

I have variable receptivity dependent on my mood so until I have got thru' all 48 in mutiple sessions I best not be overcritical

I am pleased I bought these.

regards
Geoff

The Angela Hewitt WTC came last night.

I choose not to comment on her interpretation, as this is my first encounter with the WTC, though my wife plays them.

We listened to Disk 1 last night.

First off, the piano sound is glorious. It sounds like the Fazioli that it is. Overtones are clear and prominent, and the articulation is finely nuanced.

I don't know how "correct" what she does is, but it is quite beautiful. The rhythm can be more flexible than I am used to, but my wife tells me it is acceptable practice for music from that era. The dynamics are refreshing, and breathe momentum into the music.

Looking forward to Disk 2.

Hi Mike

just finished Disk 2. It is nice that they split the 48 neatly into 4 sets of 12. It means when each disk finishes playing you have a conveinient break point to assimlate before playing further.

It is interesting to read what Angela Hewitt has to say about choosing to re-record the 48 after a worldwide concert tour where she performed the full 48 at each venue and thereby evolved her interpretation to a more adventurous and lively playing style.

It gives a very enjoyable result because as she says it is done carefully in keeping with the spirit of each prelude / Fugue pair. I am very taken with her playing myself, the more I listen.

I am also appreciating the recording quality the more I get into it.

Mr Earwicker better start saving his pennies I think.

regards
geoff

Yeah, Earwicker has this recording firmly in his sights...

As I say, skimp on the essentials then you've always money for things you don't need!

EW

Given the ridiculous enjoyment I get from her wonderful Goldberg Variations I knew resistance to this thread's subliminal advertising was futile and so it proved. The Buy-with-1-click deed has been done and I await with interest what will arrive.

Ian

I have heard other Bach performers do this locally, but it has always been mildly disconcerting.

In a fugue, when a new voice is introduced, the tempo slackens until the end of that voice's introduction to the fugue.

My discomfort at this is probably due to an early introduction to Glenn Gould playing Bach, at age 13.

Glenn Gould tends to "play through" voice introductions in meter. This lends a clockwork character, that was new in my experience.

I still think it beautiful.

But my mind and heart are beginning to open to a new vocabulary.

Strangely enough, this began with an unwanted second listen to the Liszt/Beethoven Symphonic transcriptions for piano.

That listen, with my ears fully engaged, opened a new pathway.

(Re) playing Hewitt's WTK, now, and enjoying the flow and grace of her performance. Don't care too much about the recording, but appreciate the dynamics of her playing.

Fine disc set.
cheers
Stefan

I think just about anything would be preferable to Glenn Gould's Bach ! It is rather like a sewing machine that constantly skips a beat. He tends to add accents where there are none, this lends a self consciousness that becomes wearing on the listener.



Now the Kieth Jarrett's version, though slightly ham handed, is more to my liking. Despite it's somewhat obvious character it is clear he has a deep respect and reverence for the music.

I also like Walcha, even if not a fan of the harpsichord...


Noyes

quote:

Originally posted by Noye's Fludde:
I think just about anything would be preferable to Glenn Gould's Bach ! It is rather like a sewing machine that constantly skips a beat. Noyes

I have never heard Glenn Gould skip a beat.

quote:

Originally posted by mikeeschman:

quote:

Originally posted by Noye's Fludde:
I think just about anything would be preferable to Glenn Gould's Bach ! It is rather like a sewing machine that constantly skips a beat. Noyes

I have never heard Glenn Gould skip a beat.

You can't read. I said he is like a sewing machine that skips a beat. He adds accents and gives that impression.

You shouldn't take internet forums so seriously, lad. It's just people having a go expressing their opinions, for what it's worth...

quote:

Originally posted by Noye's Fludde:
You can't read. I said he is like a sewing machine that skips a beat. He adds accents and gives that impression.

How is Glenn Gould like a sewing machine that skips a beat? From what my wife tells me, in music of this period, adding accents where the performer sees fit is accepted practice, though I don't know what Bach/Glenn Gould you are referring to.

I love Glenn Gould's Bach. You don't. Let's leave it at that.

I am afraid I am not a fan of Gould either.

A lovely pure version of the Goldberg Variations worth seeking out is this one:



I need to have another listen to Walcha's 48 on Harpsichord for comparison with Hewitt.

regards
geoff

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff P:
I am afraid I am not a fan of Gould either.
regards
geoff

He certainly has his detractors and defenders. I am one of his fans. So it goes.

Meanwhile, the Hewitt listening sessions are going well. I think I am becoming one of her fans :-)

I am enjoying reading this.

Many years ago I was involved in a Thread that went into Gould's Bach playing on the piano.

I have never since let my view on the subject appear on the Forum.

I do however have two sets of the "48" played by Walcha!

ATB from George

On DG:

And on EMI:

The EMI recording is still in the catalogue, and I commend it to any who want to listen to the music played on a harpsichord.

Goeff has my LPs of it, which I am sure would make for an instructive comparison with Hewitt' recording.

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I am enjoying reading this.

I have never since let my view on the subject appear on the Forum.

ATB from George

I think I will follow George on this one, and never discuss Gould on the forum.

Dear Mike,

The trouble with Glenn Gould is that his fans really have him on a very high level of estimation, and those who dislike his playing can be vehemently against him.

My view has changed over the years, and now I advocate listening to Bach or indeed any really durable and great music in a performance that it pleases the person to listen to the music with!

Now for some that may well be a recording by Gould, and if the listener enjoys Bach's music as a result I am rather happy!

Really it is very difficult to argue too closely about performance practice or even which performers are [at the very highesat level anyway] as it were the best!

A lot of it remains opinion and personal variations on what exactly good taste is! Of course I am sure that I can spot poor taste, but it can be that what I think is in poor taste may actually be something another person rather likes!

Email follows!

ATB from George

George, I'm going to go ahead and ask you something I queried earlier on in this thread.

In Hewitt's WTC, on fugues, she will slacken the tempo when introducing a new voice. I have heard Bach keyboardist here in New Orleans do the same.

My wife says it is done to insure you hear the new voice.

Do you know where / when this practice originated?

Dear Mike,

I do not know when it started, but not according to one of Bach's son with old JSB himself.

According to the report Bach often played quite fast [by the standards of the day of course] and often with only slight and infrequent deviations of tempo, and I find the practice of deviating from a steady tempo in a fugue as the voices are introduced - as it to spotlight the new line - to be disruptive.

My view would bhe that with concentrated listening the new voice entries should be entirely obvious without them being underlined.

Sometimes there is more flexibility in HIP style performances than what you might expect, and some of this I find disconcerting when it does not seem to apply to an expressive node in the music, or a major architectural point where a wholely new tempo may seem appropriate on occassions, but sometimes some unlikely little wiggle in the pulse of it comes along from seemingly nowhere.

Such a thing when played by an orchestra of string must be wrong for it could not be successfully managed without a conductor of some sort, and of course Bach always led his music from either a violin [or even more favoured a viola] or the harpsichord, rather than by standing up and conducting. It would be some sixty years after Bach died that conducting in the modern sense really started off.

To answer the point though, it might well be argued that high-lighting fugal entries by obvious tempo deviations is unstylish.

For myself I cannot see how it can work in contrapuntal terms as each has a life all its own - both entire free and independantand full of its very own motivation as well as being both part of the context of the other lines and also being set in context by them.

No one contrapuntal line is more important than any other, so that an expressive node in one line [it might be argued that a fugal entry is a node, but I would call it an anti-node as for there to be a node, then by definition there must first be an anti-node and then the node, and then another anti-node. The node - the xenith - of emotion in a phrase is built through tension and contextualised through relaxation into resolution and release.

Thus it might be that sometimes a fugal voice wants to relax or press ahead, but as no single fugal voice is the prima voce, then it must content itself to be subservient to the greater flow of the other voices and make its expressive means much more subliminal than an obvious short term slowing down, and probably this is a bit serious in the circumstances!

ATG from George

I'm amazed that no-one has mentioned Sviatoslav Richter in all of this. Probably the best pianist of the last Century (although Dinu Lipatti, had he lived, might have run him close) and a peerless interpreter of Bach, as well as so much else.

Angela Hewitt's recordings, from what I've heard, are nicely played and all that, but they're not in the same league as Richter's.

Graham

The Fischer WTC came last night. Still on Disc 2 of the Hewitt. Will give the Fischer a listen this weekend.

quote:

The Fischer WTC came last night. Still on Disc 2 of the Hewitt. Will give the Fischer a listen this weekend.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it, the Fischer set is one of the triumphs of the gramophone.

Just gave another listen to disk 2 of the Hewitt (Book 1 - Nos. 12-24). I am putting all other listening plans for the weekend on hold. I want to complete my introduction to the WTC with this pianist.

Hewitt's concept of rhythm is beginning to make sense to me. Very liberating :-)

And the piano sound is stunning.

I've gotten to hear Fazioli instruments at piano tuner conventions, where they are voiced to perfection. It's a striking tone; very clear. All the notes and overtones stand proud. The powerful bass doesn't drown the clear and mellow middle, or the strong top end. They have no stridency. The balance of the registers is stunning. There are no dead voicings, they all "ring".

This recording does a good job of capturing that sound.

Does anyone know more of the WTC they haven't shared on this thread?

Just a slight note of caution at this point when getting excited about the tonal pallet of a particular piano model used in a particular recording.

The music was written for the harpsichord, not the piano.

I can understand how the educated musical public could begin to get exciteed about the actual piano sound in the keyboard works of Debussy or Chopin, or even Beethoven, but Bach never liked or employed the piano for his own works, and strictly speaking the piano introduces more problems than it might be thought to solve for the music of Bach - specificallly, very specifically designed for the harpsichord or pipe organ, and clearly designated in every case, where common sense might not comprehend immediately what was intended.

This evening I listened to the whole of the "48" played by Helmut Walcha played on a pair of Bach period harpsichors - one for Book One and another for Book Two. One cannot fail to be struct by the wonderful dynamic quality of the music, perfectly conceived for an instrument without dynamic control at the level of how fast [or hard] one presses the keys.

A well voiced harpsichord will respond with a very nearly even response across its pitch range and a fast strike will result is a brighter rather than louder sound.

But Bach perfectly understood that with this apparent constraint he could made the sad contain the noble, and in the energetic he could project human warmth!

The more notes played per time interval the louder will the net effect be!

There is no reason to use a piano at all to realise Bach's intention. In fact it remains an almost insummountable hindrance in essential aspects.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:

There is no reason to use a piano at all to realise Bach's intention.

ATB from George

But George, it is beautiful on piano. The voicing is lucid. Nothing is being obscured.
I like it.