Your Preferred Bach Pianist

[Bulldog]

I also voted for Nikolayeva. I guess she is not very well kown in comparison to most younger pianists. Also, I suspect that many recordings that are easily available show her past her prime. There is a potentially spellbinding (strange phrase I know) Goldberg by her on BBC Legends, but it is so full of mistakes that I find it difficult to listen to. Also, her "romantic" Bach is not to all tastes (I love it).

Folks on this board know their Bach and Nikolayeva as well.  Put another way, she is very well known around here.
As for the BBC Legends disc, I find it very rewarding; there may well be mistakes, but they didn't bother me at all.
Ultimately, I still didn't have her on my top-ten list; she would have made top-twenty.  It's in Shostakovich where I find her supreme (Op. 87).

[Bulldog]

Bulldog
Here was our third vote for Sheppard.......23 voters with 10 votes each and only 2 for Sheppard 
A very negative surprise

A very pleasant surprise
How did Feinberg get 8 votes (same as Richter!) when he has tiny amount of recordings available, they are expensive and some not the best sound, never read about him in mainstream press like Penguin Guide etc, I thought his Bach WTC was a well kept secret.....

It's likely that recording for Romeo Records doesn't help Sheppard.  If we switched labels between Sheppard and Perahia, the latter would just be a footnote.

Is Penguin part of the mainstream press?  I've never seen it in a store here in the U.S. and never read it either.  From what I heard of it on this board, it would be useless for me.  Who buys this stuff?

[Que]

Even being a HIPPI (Historically Informed Performances on Period Instruments) I actually do like Gould's Bach - very much so. But it is a postmodern recreation of Bach - which is fine, I wouldn't have it any other way.  Better good as it is, than bad trying to be something it is not. My other favourite, Edwin Fischer, also recreates Bach, but in a late 19th century style.

Both times the result is captivating by their incredible musicianship.

Other than that, I find Bach on the piano in most cases pretty boring, in a rather depressing way, actually.  

Q

[mc ukrneal]

Even being a HIPPI (Historically Informed Performances on Period Instruments) I actually do like Gould's Bach - very much so. But it is a postmodern recreation of Bach - which is fine, I wouldn't have it any other way.  Better good as it is, than bad trying to be something it is not. My other favourite, Edwin Fischer, also recreates Bach, but in a late 19th century style.

Both times the result is captivating by their incredible musicianship.

Other than that, I find Bach on the piano in most cases pretty boring, in a rather depressing way, actually.  

Q

Actually, aren't period instrument perfromances technically the re-creation since they are trying to recreate (or recapture) the original in the sound an 18th century listener (or player) would have heard?

[Que]

Actually, aren't period instrument perfromances technically the re-creation since they are trying to recreate (or recapture) the original in the sound an 18th century listener (or player) would have heard?

According to reasoning along those lines, any performance is a recreation! Which is self-evident. What I meant was recreation as in transforming the original concept into something else.

Q

[Marc]

According to reasoning along those lines, any performance is a recreation! Which is self-evident. What I meant was recreation as in transforming the original concept into something else.

Oh dear!
This stuff brings me back to those (rare) interviews with Gustav Leonhardt, who's always been claiming that the musician is just a performer and does NOT (re)create NOR interpret.

[prémont]

Oh dear!
This stuff brings me back to those (rare) interviews with Gustav Leonhardt, who's always been claiming that the musician is just a performer and does NOT (re)create NOR interpret.

Yes, surprising, because his own musicianship seems to contradict his words.

[Holden]

How did Feinberg get 8 votes (same as Richter!) when he has tiny amount of recordings available, they are expensive and some not the best sound, never read about him in mainstream press like Penguin Guide etc, I thought his Bach WTC was a well kept secret.....

...because many of us here are not interested in what the mainstream press value and I suspect that you also share this ideology. Feinberg's Bach, as scarce as it is, is excellent. On that note how many of the mainstream press have ever heard of the Ongaku label which Schepkin has recorded all his Bach for? The same would go for Koroliov and the Hannsler label. There are no kickbacks or kudos for music journalists who promote the more obscure labels.

This is why I belong to a forum like GMG. It's heart on your sleeve promotion of the musicians and works that you feel passionate about. I've made some great discoveries from reading the threads on this forum.

[Marc]

Yes, surprising, because his own musicianship seems to contradict his words.

Yep.

(Maybe he's got a secret? I mean, after all he played the role of JSB in that Straub-film Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach.)

[DarkAngel]

...because many of us here are not interested in what the mainstream press value and I suspect that you also share this ideology. Feinberg's Bach, as scarce as it is, is excellent. On that note how many of the mainstream press have ever heard of the Ongaku label which Schepkin has recorded all his Bach for? The same would go for Koroliov and the Hannsler label. There are no kickbacks or kudos for music journalists who promote the more obscure labels.

This is why I belong to a forum like GMG. It's heart on your sleeve promotion of the musicians and works that you feel passionate about. I've made some great discoveries from reading the threads on this forum.

Keep spreading the word brother........

My classical collection has rapidly expanded last couple years as a result of this forum.......especially Bach!

[DavidRoss]

My classical collection has rapidly expanded last couple years as a result of this forum....

It's dangerous that way.     When I drop out for awhile, I often go weeks or even months without buying new CDs.  But when I visit regularly, scarcely a week goes by that I don't buy something!