Bach on the piano

[Mandryka]

Andrea Bacchetti maybe.

[George]

I don't like Gould so I can't really be impartial. But if I try to set aside my prejudices, the French Suites still seem like exactly the wrong music for Gould. That makes me a little curious. Does he try to change tactics? Or is it a case of "let Gould be Gould"?

I can't say. To me, it's always pure, infectious joy when I listen to Gould's Bach. And in the French Suites, the joy reaches towards ecstasy.

I know he is not for everyone, though.

[Ras]

Is there another Schiff? This one started off very bouncy and, honestly, I got impatient and skipped it. It just sounded too pretty.

Yes, there is a later live recording by Andras Schiff, on DVD or Blu-ray from the Leipzig Bach Fest 2010 recorded in a church. It includes all 6 French Suites + The Italian Concerto + Overture in the French Style in B minor. On youtube there is an unofficial upload, so see what you think about it:  https://youtu.be/4tzBcFimIho

[milk]

the Bach on this, romantic Bach played on a romantic period piano, is captivating and mesmerizing.

[Mandryka]

Listening this morning to Michel Levinas play WTC 2.

[milk]

This is Yuan Sheng taking about his musical development. What's interesting to me is what he has to say about studying with Roslyn Tureck.

https://youtu.be/kJ5wwn-3214

And to follow up, here's an interview I found on Facebook:

Interview With Yuan Sheng
Although Yuan Sheng is now a professor at the Central Conservatory of Beijing, where he was once a student, he lived in the United States so long that he began to forget some of his Chinese, he told me with a laugh.
China has produced a number of pianists who have become celebrities, like Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and Yundi Li. But Sheng is the Chinese pianist whose concerts I try not to miss. Since first hearing him about 15 years ago his musicianship has continued to impress me. His playing is elegant though not flamboyant, and intellectual but never dry. To say that he excels in two composers as different as Bach and Chopin gives an idea of his range. He is also a wonderful Debussy pianist, and, in fact, was playing an early ballade by the French master as I arrived for an interview. So beautiful and evocative was it that I became aware of the inadequacy of words to describe color in music.
The son of a violinist father and a pianist mother he began piano lessons at age five "because I had nothing much else to do" he says. He studied till age nine with his mother, though he was not very serious about it at first. He was well taught by his mother but became a bit rebellious by the age of ten, so she sent him to study with her friend and Shanghai Conservatory classmate, Qifang Li. Ms. Li was very strict, and he sometimes cried at lessons, but he increased his practicing time, and they did a lot of work on technique. When he was thirteen he was accepted into the Central Conservatory, and he studied there till he was 19.
He then came to New York to study with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music. "How did that come about?" I asked.
"My father had a friend who knew Dr. Mikowsky, and gave him a tape of my playing" he told me. "I was accepted, and received an almost full scholarship."
"What did you learn from Dr. Mikowsky during your six years with him?" I asked.
"He is very good at identifying a student's strengths and weaknesses" he told me. "His students don't fit a mold because he respects peoples' individuality, and works with your character. He also considers the size and shape of your hand, and your technique."
"Did he play for you often at lessons?" I asked.
"Not often, but always very beautifully when he did."
Another important thing Mikowsky did was to take Yuan Sheng to performances of Shura Cherkassky. "Cherkassky gave me new understanding about playing the piano, not just with his sound, which was gorgeous, but also with his phrasing, freedom, imagination, charisma and technical control."
His next teacher was Rosalyn Tureck, who then lived in London.
"Did you move to London?" I asked.
"No, I stayed in New York and flew there every other month and had lessons for several days, or a week."
Why did he go to Tureck at that point?
"I wanted to work on more Bach and Beethoven, and in a very intellectual way" he said.
What was Tureck like as a teacher?
"She was very strict and demanding" he said. "Everything had to be done her way. One could spend half an hour on one or two bars of a Bach work" he said, and then demonstrated parts of two pieces in which she had figured out how every single note should be played, re phrasing, accents, and relationships within the measure. Although he does not do everything in Bach exactly the way she taught him, he was inspired by her thoroughness and attention to detail.
Also, because of Tureck, he became interested in the harpsichord, and period instruments. In fact, he has now recorded the Goldberg Variations of Bach on both the modern piano, and the harpsichord! "And this coming year I will perform it twice in one day, first on the harpsichord, in the afternoon, and on the piano in the evening." As he plays every single repeat (which makes the work about 77 minutes long) that will be a feat!
We discussed at some length his ideas about the importance of introducing pianists to historical instruments. He told me he believes every conservatory should have electives on period instruments, and that at the Central Conservatory in Beijing they now have a harpsichord, a clavichord, a piano from Beethoven's time, and and two pianos from the era of Chopin. He wants to make more recordings on the harpsichord, and even some on the clavichord, which, he believes, is a very expressive instrument. "These older instruments give one a better idea of what the composers heard and felt" he said.
Sheng also believes that the Romantic habit of rolling chords emanated from the earlier instruments. "The harpsichord was inspired by the organ, as it has a keyboard, and the lute, on which notes are plucked. "And not only Bach, but Mozart and Haydn, too, were well acquainted with the harpsichord." He says that there was much more rhythmic freedom in playing long ago compared to now, and also that the softer sound of these instruments, and the shorter duration of their notes, affected tempi.
"Playing period instruments brings you into a whole other culture from that of the pianist" he added. Whereas pianists focus great importance on the sound produced, players of the older instruments devote great care to ornaments, articulation and the expressive use of rhythm. "If a pianist changes one note of the score it's almost a 'sin' whereas on the older instruments one is expected to elaborate on what's written."
Yuan Sheng prefers to perform as much as possible these days, and not teach too much, though he does teach full-time at the conservatory, and has some private students. Perhaps he'll change this balance when he's older, he says.
What career plans does he have at this point?
He plans to record:
1) Almost all the major non-organ keyboard works of Bach on the piano, plus some pieces on the harpsichord and clavichord,
2) All the Chopin works,
3) All the Beethoven piano sonatas, and
4) All the piano works of Debussy.
If that sounds like a lot, I should add that he's already more than half way through the Bach and Chopin projects, and has learned all the Beethoven sonatas, too.
Yuan Sheng is a wonderful artist whom you should go to hear, if you have the chance!
Donald Isler

[milk]

I was comparing these two and almost immediately liked the Janssen better. The problem is to figure out why. Janssen brings out the sense of independent lines (counterpoint) weaving together. Sheng reminds me more of someone like Schiff. Janssen is more dramatic, heavy and chancy. I feel bad to say this because I quite like Sheng's French suites. I think Janssen is the guy that has some kind of affliction that's caused him to quit playing? That's a shame and a tragedy. Janssen is filled with electricity in his partitas. I want to go back and hear his WTC.   

[Mandryka]

Listening this morning to Michel Levinas play WTC 2.

And this afternoon. That's quite enough for one lifetime, it's OK but no cigar.

[Karl Henning]

https://www.youtube.com/v/om9Qzws_2io

[staxomega]

Thought of you when I saw this Mandryka 

[Florestan]

Thought of you when I saw this Mandryka 

Piotr Piano Anderszewski, Christian Violin Tetzlaff... 

[staxomega]

Piotr Piano Anderszewski, Christian Violin Tetzlaff... 

LOL I love it  Certainly a better middle name than something like Maltempo for pianist!

[Florestan]

LOL I love it  Certainly a better middle name than something like Maltempo for pianist!

[Mandryka]

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/23/000149232.pdf

Now streaming. The fugues are played with a strict pulse, following some comments from Kirnberger. I enjoyed this  this in 875 , because the fugue is so complex anyway that there's always something surprising going on. 877 is also complex but I just don't feel that Guglielmi has quite got the hang of it. Elsewhere I found the results too predictable. The preludes are uniformly listenable. I've listened up to 877.

[milk]

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/23/000149232.pdf

Now streaming. The fugues are played with a strict pulse, following some comments from Kirnberger. I enjoyed this  this in 875 , because the fugue is so complex anyway that there's always something surprising going on. 877 is also complex but I just don't feel that Guglielmi has quite got the hang of it. Elsewhere I found the results too predictable. The preludes are uniformly listenable. I've listened up to 877.

I had to go back and listen to Takehisa, who uses a similar-sounding fortepiano in bk II. It's a shame that part of WTC is missing on iTunes. It seems like 1/4 was just forgotten. I bet it's out there on CD somewhere. Seems like Takehisa, a virtual unknown even in Japan, is more worth the time.

[milk]

I think this is a fun and amusing Goldberg. It's full of wit and bounce. Apparently, he has a new Well Tempered Clavier Bk2 out, but unfortunately it's not streaming on iTunes.

[Mandryka]

I think this is a fun and amusing Goldberg. It's full of wit and bounce. Apparently, he has a new Well Tempered Clavier Bk2 out, but unfortunately it's not streaming on iTunes.

Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdgaqpDCEk4&ab_channel=GOGGiovineOrchestraGenovese

[milk]

Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdgaqpDCEk4&ab_channel=GOGGiovineOrchestraGenovese

Wow! Thanks!

[Mandryka]

Heidsieck French Suites - not a recommendation you understand, but other people may see something good about it.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3JrrTlHFmXYg7a21dQmTnd

[Mandryka]

I have it now. My feeling is that it's more about virtuosity than about poetry, more about style than substance. By no means unpleasant or uninteresting. I'd have thought that anyone who enjoys Richter for example, or Koroliov, would think that this is worth hearing.

Listening to it on a different, better, system and listening to it with a different frame of mind, when it's not pouring with rain, has totally transformed my perception of the performance - what is crossed out above is unfair. Conclusions . . .