Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier

[Bulldog]

I just read that Angela Hewitt has recorded the Well Tempered Clavier again!  I have her original set and I like it, but I thought one virtue of it is that it is rather neutral, it lets Bach's polyphony speak for itself.  What's the point of doing it again?

When performers go back and record a work a second time, they feel they have something new to say.  Hantai and Schiff felt this way about the Goldberg Variations, and their second efforts certainly bear this out. 

Hewitt's not my idea of essential Bach, so I doubt I'll be acquiring her new set.

[Opus106]

I've actually contemplated Schiff; my WTC collection (or Bach collection, for that matter) is quite limited*.

This might be for you. Or maybe not.

[nut-job]

This might be for you. Or maybe not.

I have that, but in the previous Decca incarnation, excellent.  But following that link was a godsend, because I stumbled on this.

It seems to be available in Germany only.   

[Opus106]

But following that link was a godsend, because I stumbled on this.

It seems to be available in Germany only.  

[Off-topic] Those Eloquence boxes do look appealing. I don't mind them being available only in Germany, but it's the shipping cost that really bums me out. (Maybe, once I choose enough of these boxes, I'll order them together. ) The availability of the Brendel/Schubert is not new to me, but the Haskil/Mozart was. I hear that she's wonderful in that repertoire. [/off-topic]

[Renfield]

This might be for you. Or maybe not.

Many thanks! And that thing's cheaper than the WTC alone, this side of the English Channel.

[nut-job]

[Off-topic] Those Eloquence boxes do look appealing. I don't mind them being available only in Germany, but it's the shipping cost that really bums me out. (Maybe, once I choose enough of these boxes, I'll order them together. ) The availability of the Brendel/Schubert is not new to me, but the Haskil/Mozart was. I hear that she's wonderful in that repertoire. [/off-topic]

Well, 19 Euros seems like a bargain (after the VAT is removed) but they want 14 Euro to dispatch it to the states.  That supplied the willpower to resist it.  Hard to understand why shipping from Germany to the US is so much more expensive an inconvenient than from the UK.   The one time I did order stuff from Germany it was similarly expensive, took ages, and looked like it had been thrown out of the plane without a parachute when it finally arrived.  Even shipping from Australia to the US is tons cheaper and faster.

[George]

Well, 19 Euros seems like a bargain (after the VAT is removed) but they want 14 Euro to dispatch it to the state.  That supplied the willpower to resist it. 

Even with that funky, Van Morrison-esque cover? 

[Renfield]

How do you like the Tureck?

Whoops, I missed this.

Well, Tureck. Tureck's WTC is one of those recordings I tremendously appreciate, but somehow do not love (yet, perhaps).

So far, my WTC-affections have been held almost exclusively by Edwin Fischer, with some digressions into modern territory courtesy of Hewitt, dips into the Richter, and occasional sessions of Gould. But with Schiff on the way, I might as well revisit them all again!

[nut-job]

Whoops, I missed this.

Well, Tureck. Tureck's WTC is one of those recordings I tremendously appreciate, but somehow do not love (yet, perhaps).

So far, my WTC-affections have been held almost exclusively by Edwin Fischer, with some digressions into modern territory courtesy of Hewitt, dips into the Richter, and occasional sessions of Gould. But with Schiff on the way, I might as well revisit them all again!

In the Schiff set the partitas are particularly fascinating.  Don't restrict yourself to the preludes and fugues.

[Renfield]

In the Schiff set the partitas are particularly fascinating.  Don't restrict yourself to the preludes and fugues.

I am planning to make a point of going through the whole set. On most occasions, I simply dip into Bach's keyboard works (mostly the WTC and the Goldbergs), but this provides an opportunity to go the proverbial extra mile, I think. Incidentally, thanks are in order to yourself, as well, for the initial Schiff recommendation that I was anyway planning to follow up at some point, when opus67 alerted me to the offer.

[Coopmv]

I just do not understand why the Schiff set is ONLY available in Germany?

[nut-job]

I just do not understand why the Schiff set is ONLY available in Germany?

It happens.  A similar set is available internationally, but for a lot more money.

The only thing I don't like from that set is the Goldberg Variations.

[Opus106]

Pieter-Jan Belder/Harpsichord/Brilliant Classics



http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/CD/93892.htm

Has anyone heard it yet?

[FideLeo]

Pieter-Jan Belder/Harpsichord/Brilliant Classics



http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/CD/93892.htm

Has anyone heard it yet?

No...it is not yet released in UK. 

Listening to the Blandine Verlet set instead. 

[FideLeo]

To be followed by a disc from Moroney's harmonia mundi set.

Todd McComb of medieval.org fame has the following praise for Moroney's WTC:

"Although there are several good recordings of WTC (whereas I claim
that, for instance, Moroney's is the only good recording of AOF), and
although I did not think that Moroney's recording stood out from these
on first hearing, after a few years' acquaintance, I also find his WTC
to be the richest and most convincing.  However, I am unsure as to
whether someone struggling to enjoy these pieces on harpsichord will
enjoy the Moroney recording as much as some others -- part of what makes
his recording so convincing over the long-term is that it is so
idiomatic for the harpsichord, even to the level of phrasing.  It's
quite a revelation, actually.

That said, Moroney's WTC recording is easily my favorite Bach
recording -- the one I get the most out of, time after time. "

[Coopmv]

No...it is not yet released in UK. 

Listening to the Blandine Verlet set instead. 

Didn't Belder have some earlier WTC discs that were incorporated into that mammoth 155-CD Bach Collection set released by Brilliant two years ago?  I bought that set ...

[FideLeo]

 

Didn't Belder have some earlier WTC discs that were incorporated into that mammoth 155-CD Bach Collection set released by Brilliant two years ago?  I bought that set ...

Leon Berben was the player of that recording.

[prémont]

 

Didn't Belder have some earlier WTC discs that were incorporated into that mammoth 155-CD Bach Collection set released by Brilliant two years ago?  I bought that set ...

No, the WTC Book I & II in the Brilliant "complete" Bach box is performed by Leon Berben. His is the most sloppy recording of the WTC I ever have heard. Always, but especially in the works with many accidentals there are abundant lots of wrong notes, completely spoiling the music. To be avoided.

Belder have recorded the WTC I & II in the mid 1990es for some small Dutch firm, whose name I do not recall. Book II is OOP. I own Book I, and regret to say, that I do not intend to write home about it.

[prémont]

Pieter-Jan Belder/Harpsichord/Brilliant Classics



http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/CD/93892.htm

Has anyone heard it yet?

Ooh, his second recording of that work? Hopefully better, than his first.
Or is it a new recording at all?

[FideLeo]

No, the WTC Book I & II in the Brilliant "complete" Bach box is performed by Leon Berben. His is the most sloppy recording of the WTC I ever have heard. Always, but especially in the works with many accidentals there are abundant lots of wrong notes, completely spoiling the music. To be avoided.

Belder have recorded the WTC I & II in the mid 1990es for some small Dutch firm, whose name I do not recall. Book II is OOP. I own Book I, and regret to say, that I do not intend to write home about it.

It appears, then, that Berben recorded his WTC as sight-readings.  Brilliant idea.