Bach: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue BWV 903

[FideLeo]

The 'Rust' version, BWV 903a

http://www.youtube.com/v/yeDXIksGHQw



Took me a while to find a proper cover image for the recording 

[Bulldog]

It was never the subject - it's someone wanting a recommendation.  And you want to corner me? 

You cornered yourself, but whatever.  Just like in the thread where you went off the wall about playback equipment, talking to you is waste.

[prémont]

The Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue is a "small" masterpiece. For me it compares to many other great musical compositions. And like most of Bach's works (like any great Music, or Art) it contains in itself a multitude of meaningful musical images or ideas. This is what I tend to look for in any interpretation - an aid to help me get these deeper and more sensible impressions, evoked by a particular piece. Of course, this is always different from reading to reading, and from one listener to another. So, more than a mere technical execution, more than the colors, the articulations, the arpeggios, ... what I look for in listening is the expression of ideas, feelings and, perhaps sometimes, even some mysteries. Be it in a harpsichord or in a piano.

I think you misinterpreted my post, and I agree fully with your words above except for the four last words.

[FideLeo]

All those fingers in the waves of Naruto! 

http://www.youtube.com/v/uYw-ABEwChU

[asin]B000F1HR96[/asin]

[mjwal]

I haven't yet listened to the recordings so obligingly linked to by you guys - and have no clear opinion about the vexed question of harpsichord vs. piano in Bach - but I have always taken an almost guilty pleasure in the amplified clavichord version by Friedrich Gulda, which really rocks...It may be on CD now - yes, in the same fascinating compilation I have on LPs:

You can get the double CD for less than 17 € on amazon.de

[czgirb]

Thank you very very much for all of you, whose considerate this thread and try to introduce your recommendation recordings to me.
All of you make me know more Bach's Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue (BWV-903)
Thank you ... Thank you.

Sorry for my bad english.

[mc ukrneal]

I must admit that I was just blown away by Yudina. Just wow!! Mezmorizing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0wJdo71pM

And a different take with Kemff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrNCmEUOR4w&feature=related

Both hold the listener in their own way. Yudina demands the listener's attention and it is hard to turn away. It is urgent, demanding, and pushing foward. The runs are distinct and speed brings its own excitement. Kempff seduces. His is more varied in the way he uses dynamics. I like the way the runs become a greater part of the whole, rather than being a focus in and of itself. Both are pretty remarkable.

[Mandryka]

How much practical experience do you have working in meantone? Have you, personally, ever played through the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue (BWV 903) and the G minor fantasia (BWV 542) in any of the meantone, modified meantone, or well temperaments? If you have, if you've been there with your hands on the keyboard savoring those different characters as the music modulates, you KNOW that Bach knew what he was doing. (A clincher for me is the C#-major part of the Chromatic Fantasy.)

Who has recorded this on an instrument tuned in a very non equal temperament like 1/4 comma meantone?

[prémont]

Who has recorded this on an instrument tuned in a very non equal temperament like 1/4 comma meantone?

I know a lot of recordings of BWV 903 - at least 40, probably more, but I do not recall any in strict meantone. There are some in rather modified meantone (Verlet e.g.)

[Mandryka]

The one here by Leonhardt seems special to me, the harmonies in the fantasia  for example. I think it's his first recording of it.