Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier

[prémont]

I found Belder, unexpectedly, quite dissapointing. Would be my dud of 2019...

Q

I enjoy his noble restraint and subtle expression.

Some also find his Scarlatti dull, I find it well balanced and often poetic.

[milk]

It is very good indeed. Remember Asperen's Pokemon , , ,

Van Asperen and Wilson are startlingly good.

[Que]

Van Asperen and Wilson are startlingly good.

Van Asperen should record the WTC again. Like his teacher Gustav Leonhardt, his current late recordings are best.
His Virgin recordings are too mechanical for my taste. This is not representative of his playing today.

Glen Wilson has it all IMO: idiomatic, straight forward though imaginative and touching when need be. Still the Golden Standard.

What don't you like about it?

With Belder, I guess the biggest dissapointment is what could have been, but didn't materialise.
I like his approach to Bach, but the taste of the pudding is in the eating and in this case the execution falls short of expectations. His WTC is in a nutshell: uneven. There are wonderfull movements followed by ones that falter. The whole thing sounds insufficiently thought through and underrehearsed. Book II is overall notably more succesfull than Book I.

Q

[Mandryka]

mechanical

I hear free rhythms and elastic counterpoint; I hear a singing swinging style; I hear stylish ornaments and rubato; I hear a lovely harpsichord (Zell); I hear the recording which paved the way for later free interpretations like Koopman, Verlet, Hantai, Belder, Egarr.

[staxomega]

What's the point of consistency?

I do not mean that all of the preludes and fugues sound the same. I mean the performances from piece to piece are uniformly excellent. I tend to listen to WTC in long stretches so having some that are great and many that aren't is something that turns me off.

On piano Vieru also seems to hit the perfect tempo for nearly each and every piece.

Glen Wilson has it all IMO: idiomatic, straight forward though imaginative and touching when need be. Still the Golden Standard.

I agree, also those lesser known composers he has been recording on Naxos is a supremely enjoyable series. Lots of music I haven't heard before but his playing sounds like it fits.

[milk]

I don't think many people here payed attention to these recordings though I do recall reading a bad review of Paul's Bach. It's interesting to know there are these other recordings on the lautenwerk. These are not radical interpretations like Rubsam's. They're definitely more conventional. Yet I think they have something going for them. The instrument was built by Anden Houben, a name I've never see before, and I think it has a more interesting sound than the one Rubsam plays. That's a matter of taste though as Rubsam's has more consistency of tones. Paul's instrument has a booming resonant bottom and a treble thwang to the strings. Anyway, Paul was accused of being boring but I don't think he is. He does take slow tempos and rubato is subtle. I really like the clear expression of the lines of counterpoint. It almost sounds like a bass guitar playing along with a harp.

[milk]

Book 1 Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor

Leonhardt transition to the fugue is so dramatic and heart-rending it gave me goose bumps. It's like the whole world comes falling down in that fugue. It's so gripping. He has me hanging on every note.
Demus's is quiet and sorrowful, by comparison. Even with all that pianism available to him, Demus sticks with subdued sorrow over heavy drama.
I've been loving Van Asperen lately. He doesn't achieve the heights Leonhardt does but he's very convincing, very mournful. He takes a slow tempo and there's more human sentiment here over Leonhardt's almost cosmic desolation.
I feel like only a few people in the world are really aware of Genzoh Takehisa. He's just outstanding. I don't think I've seen any reviews or promotion of him anywhere.
In his C-Sharp minor, he takes a little different approach with the prelude. I can't describe it but he also manages a nice dramatic transition into the fugue. I like how creative he is; he always seems to find something novel to accentuate though I'm not sure this is his best moment on a recording that's full of so much insightfulness.
It's interesting how Celine Frisch can do something so totally different with this fugue. She makes it very grand and builds up and up and up to the sky. She just takes you away.
How about Suzuki? He's the most religious - or he's the only one that I know is religious - so I expect some theodicy from him. It's really the fugue that matters, unlike some of the other keys where the prelude is so memorable. I've kind of run out of words at this point but I don't think he disappoints. It's a giant monument, this fugue, and Suzuki also creates some kind of cosmic drama from it.
But Leonhardt and Frisch are the most memorable.
ETA: Schiff is too precious but Ugorskaja is heartbreaking. Lepauw does something radical in the prelude: lots of silence. Lots of space and tenderness. But in the fugue, I'm not sure I like his histrionics.

[aukhawk]

Very interesting.  All I hear are the notes.

[milk]

Very interesting.  All I hear are the notes.

If you want clarity - to hear the notes - Rübsam is your man on the lautenwerk.
This fugue doesn't work so well on piano I find. Pianism just messes it up.

[aukhawk]

I've got a limited selection from the Rubsam set - just Book II Nos 18-24 - and a few of his other recordings - and yes, very good to have, as an alternate view.

Your previous post prompted me to listen to six recordings of the same piece - Hewitt 2, Ugorskaja, Richter, Lepauw, Suzuki and Gould, in that order.  I do generally prefer listening to piano.  I kinda heard what you did in the case of Lepauw, but otherwise my brain doesn't react to this music with descriptions like 'religious', 'heartbreaking' or 'tender'.  Of that six I liked Gould the best, then Richter.

[milk]

I've got a limited selection from the Rubsam set - just Book II Nos 18-24 - and a few of his other recordings - and yes, very good to have, as an alternate view.

Your previous post prompted me to listen to six recordings of the same piece - Hewitt 2, Ugorskaja, Richter, Lepauw, Suzuki and Gould, in that order.  I do generally prefer listening to piano.  I kinda heard what you did in the case of Lepauw, but otherwise my brain doesn't react to this music with descriptions like 'religious', 'heartbreaking' or 'tender'.  Of that six I liked Gould the best, then Richter.

how do you describe the reasons you like those in particular? Yes I think we've very different tastes. I don't really see why people like Gould so much. Today I listened to Robert Levin play this fugue on the organ. I like that as well.

[aukhawk]

They sound relatively plain and undemonstrative to me.  Hewitt too, and she has the advantage over the other two of a marvellous piano and refined recording.  I do enjoy listening to more 'interpretive' performers but I find the more I do so, the more I am drawn back to the straight-ahead approach in this music.
But in Bach's Cello Suites for example I'm much more drawn to extremes - straight-ahead in the Cello Suites is a bit boring, just not quite enough going on.

[milk]

I enjoy both (Kenneth Gilbert and Kenneth Weiss) and would not dare to choose between them.

I haven't listened to Gilbert in a while but I listened to Weiss for the first time yesterday and was really impressed. Also, I wanted to, once again, talk up Robert Levin. He plays the C-Sharp minor fugue on an Organ! It's interesting how he goes from somewhat straightforward performances on harpsichord and clavichord to something different on the organ.

[prémont]

straight-ahead in the Cello Suites is a bit boring, just not quite enough going on.

All music is boring when played mechanically. This is one of the reasons why Gould bores me.

[André]

Gould is anything but mechanical.

[milk]

All music is boring when played mechanically. This is one of the reasons why Gould bores me.

me too. Was Leonhardt the first and most influential figure for the development of a new attitude towards Bach's keyboard music? It doesn't seem like we would have gotten this far without him.

[Mandryka]

Leonhardt studied with Eduard Muller in Basel, I've never explored his style but I just found this Frescobaldi organ recording. There's also a Bach concerto, 1048,  where he plays keyboard, Wenzinger at the helm. And some Handel organ concertos.

[prémont]

Gould is anything but mechanical.

So his playing abounds in expressive rubato?

[prémont]

Leonhardt studied with Eduard Muller in Basel, I've never explored his style but I just found this Frescobaldi organ recording. There's also a Bach concerto, 1048,  where he plays keyboard, Wenzinger at the helm. And some Handel organ concertos.

Eduard Müller "composed" an improvisatory middle harpsichord movement for the third Brandenburg concerto (BWV 1048) and recorded it three times (with Wenzinger, Sacher and with Hans Reinartz). I think as a composition a very convincing example of neo-Bach - even if played in a stiff and old-fashioned way. And generally I find his playing pedantic old-school, but he must have been a good pedagogue.

[prémont]

me too. Was Leonhardt the first and most influential figure for the development of a new attitude towards Bach's keyboard music? It doesn't seem like we would have gotten this far without him.

I can't think of any other active musician with a similar influence.