The Keyboard Music of Bach

Haven't been listening to the Goldbergs for a long time .... but if the piano is concerned, I've always liked this Arte Nova issue, played by Russian Jekaterina Dershavina:



And this one's pretty attractive, too :

 

Both cover photos have some interesting angles.

By the way, here's Bigg's harpsichord version of the Passagaglia:



Then the fugue:



Marvellous!

 

Thx for the links!

Will listen to them tomorrow or Friday .... have to go to bed now.

But I certainly like Power Bigg's BWV 582 on the organ (CBS/Sony), so I have some expectations.

Good night.

 

Really nice to hear this magnificent piece played on a harpsichord (despite the moderate sound quality).
I liked the Fugue better; the change of tempi (and spirit) in the Passacaglia gave me no chance to get high.

 

Completely agreed. I have not heard these youtube clips, but I own his BWV 582 played on pedal harpsichord (old CBS LP), and never really liked his Passacaglia because of the rhapsodic chracter of his interpretation including unapt changes of tempo.

 

What the Sarge...Yes, at least the cover

 

Secret language?

About the recording: I liked it, but it's not a desert island disc. But .... if I were forced to take only one Goldberg to the island, it would be a harpsichord one. Maybe Suzuki, because of the beautiful recording sound (?).

 

Karl Richters Archiv 1970 version seems to me too ponderous and pedestrian, and with all the repeats endless when played in this way. And his Neupert harpsichord does not exactly sound nice. I like his ca 1957 version for Telefunken marginally better, as he omits many of the repeats - but it is still Karl Richter and Neupert but it is not so close miked as the Archiv.

Never heard Gavrilov's Goldbergs.

Gould I can not stand. Neither the 1957 nor the 1980 studio versions.

Scott Ross is brilliant in his studio version for EMI. The same applies to his live version (for Erato), which also is more integrated as to conception.

Staier, yes interesting. And the instrument he uses is perhaps the most HIP true, which has been used for recordings of this work until this day.

Massini I do not know.

I am not that keen on Bach on piano. The only piano version of the Goldbergs I have kept is a recording made by an Italian pianist who's name I do not recall at the moment. Will find out.

 

Not to you, I suppose

 

Sure thing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boobs_in_Arms

 

Richter, pe-zulu you are right, but it is still Karl Richter.

But the Gould phenomenon is typical of this mad world where appearance is all that counts.
About thirty biographies have been written about Gould, the "eccentric genius".
My local library has bought several of them.
No doubt new ones are on the way, with recirculated rumours about his sex life.
Who cares?
And we have Lady Gaga with beer cans in her hair.

Artur Rubinstein said in his memoirs that the world is at its lowest, morally and artistically.
But that was thirty years ago.
As I see it, we are now much lower.
Is there no end to this?
When will the final nadir be reached?
This is too much.
Oh big asteroid, please come from outer space and find the right target.
I am waiting...

 

(Off-topic in a way, apologies for that.)

Bat, a short reaction to your troubles:
check out the nearby library and enjoy some history books about the high moral and artistical standards of the past.

Is, in f.i. Mozart operas or Schikaneder plays, the attitude towards Moors/Muslims really 'high-leveled'?

I also think that decadency is of all time. The comics of Asterix prove it.

(And I admit that, during the eighties, I enjoyed Madonna's belly button. )

At least I'm still hopeful, as in 'my' part of the world (Europe) there is no such political leader like f.i. Hitler or Stalin ruining moral standards at their monstruous level.

And I'm still hopeful, because this small board proves there are still people all around the world enjoying the music of Bach, Mozart et al.

(Don't forget btw: Stalin loved Mozart!)

 

And Hitler loved Wagner.
I admire your optimism but perhaps we are headed to zombie apocalypse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_apocalypse

Perhaps it will start in 2012 when the Maya calendar ends

The end will be sudden... just like the AoF ends in the unfinished fugue. Suddenly the music stops... our CD players will malfunction... we look at the windows... and see zombies everywhere.

What if Bach had the zombie apocalypse in mind when he left the AoF unfinished?

Contrapunctus XIV breaks off abruptly in the middle of the third section at bar 239 and the first chapter of Revelation of St. John is the 239th chapter of the New Testament.

Can this be a coincidence?

Especially when you consider that nuclear weapons consist of Plutonium-239. That is the most dangerous material anywhere.

 

Well, there it is.

239.

The end will be sudden.

In my endlessly optimistic view: something to look forward to.

Back to topic: listened today a.o. to Christiane Jaccottet's reading of Bach's Toccatas for harpsichord. From time to time I choose one of her recordings to listen to a Bach-without-pranks, yet not without vitality!

Sound quality of this one is a bit metallic and flat, though. The disc is part of a 40cd-boxset called Premium Edition, produced by Cascade.
Probably this particular recording was first issued as:

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Toccaten-910-916-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00008FKYW

 

Pianist Clara Haskil recorded a beautiful Toccata BWV 914 in the 50's, I think it is a live recording.

I recently bought Haskil's inexpensive box of 10 CD's - it is very nice.

William Blake said about the end:

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.
This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narow chinks of his cavern.

We are now at the end of six thousand years (that began in 4000 BC)...

 

No, the original release was by the now defunct small German label Intercord. I am fortunate to own the complete Intercord set except the two latest volumes containing the odd works like the two suites BWV 818 and 819 and the Fantasy and Fugue in a minor BWV 904. I am afraid that you would not find the sound quality of the Intercord release better than the Cascade release.

 

And this is what the angels shall sing at the End of Time:

BWV 239

Can this be a coincidence?

 

Merry Christmas!

Funny sounding organ btw, sounds like a piano.

 

Can this be a coincidence?

By the way, another version:



Funny sounding violins though. Sound like cats being pulled by the tails.

 

This must be as it is in heaven.

No kidding: amateur music making is a very good thing.
Liked the elegant moves of the blonde violinist.