He's a review for the BBC's Building a Library by Nicholas Kenyon:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bzp53#synopsisHe says at the start the the GVs is one of Bach’s most outgoing works. Later on he makes it clear the variety and exuberance is a main criterion of interpretation He discards introspective approaches like Leonhardt2 and every one by Tureck.
This made the conclusions of the review of limited interest to me since my tastes are almost the polar opposite.
Shame that Leonhardt 3 isn’t discussed – this is a very distinctive and important one IMO. Also he was too dismissive of Hantai (it’s not even clear whether he was talking about Hantai 1 or Hantai 2)
Very good that he singles out Blandine Verlet for praise especially for the final quarter of the music. She is really special there IMO.
I also thought he was very fair in his comments on McGregor and Egarr.
Also a shame that he didn’t review any Busoni transcriptions, since IMO these are some of the best records on piano.
Interesting that Schiff 1 is given a pivotal position (the recording which made Bach on the piano acceptable again)
The review made me really want to hear Koopman’s (despite the reviewer’s negative feelings about the ornamentation – but I want to judge for myself) Also the taste and description of Lars Ulri Mortensen’s record makes me want to hear the whole thing. I love the good humoured style of the partitas and the review leads me to look forward to more of the same in the Goldbergs.
On piano, I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing Kempff’s with that strange unornamented aria sounds so quirky that I want to hear the whole thing.
But really the review on piano had some major lacunae, like Schliessmann and Buechner.
