Bach on the piano

[Mandryka]

I have to reappraise Brookshire and Asperen. I loved the sound of that instrument and Asperen has this feeling of spontaneity to me. At least I remember thinking so. Is a recording an artist's definitive expression or is it a snapshot of their feeling on that day and on that instrument in that place? For some recordings, I like the sense that this is being beamed in from somewhere and once it's gone, it's gone. Like, an performer's in-the-moment take. Fleeting. But this could all be imagination and nonsense

This is a comment from the cellist Colin Carr about the Bach suites 

I have played these pieces for decades; there is no music with which I am more familiar. It may sound like a cliché but every time I come back to them they are different. The other day I played them in London for a recording. At the end of the session we decided it would be worth playing the C minor suite through again and the Allemande was 35 seconds faster than the previous time. Nothing had been discussed and I had not listened to the previous one and made an adjustment. It was a spontaneous thing for better or worse; at the moment it felt better. But imagine that, a movement of four to five minutes being 35 seconds faster. I was delighted. If I have the misfortune to have to listen to performances from long ago I don't recognize myself. The challenge always is to prepare everything meticulously and then to be a thoroughly clean vessel through which the music can flow, as it needs to at that moment, not knowing how it will emerge. Always paradox!



And Rubsam -- who is in a way in the same non-chordal tradition of counterpoint performance as Brookshire was -- once said this to me

You will likely notice that even after repeated listening to
a given track, one can not guess how the next measure is interpreted.

The reason for this is that the scores are not played vertically aligned, but rather
voices are played independently in a cantabile way, so complex, that even I can not
memorize the exact "manner of playing", nor even know myself
how the next measure or phrase might sound. I also can not play a track the same way
again for recording; it will always be colored a different way.

[prémont]

You didn't list Leonhardt either.

Every time I have listened to Leonhardt's French suites I have found them to be on the dry academical side, but maybe I should revisit them?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Every time I have listened to Leonhardt's French suites I have found them to be on the dry academical side, but maybe I should revisit them?

The description applies to his first English Suites too.

[prémont]

The description applies to his first English Suites too.

Du you refer to his first (Seon) recording or second (EMI) recording?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Du you refer to his first (Seon) recording or second (EMI) recording?

Seon.

[prémont]

Seon.

I thought so. The EMI recording is more urgent and flowing in conception.

[milk]

This is a comment from the cellist Colin Carr about the Bach suites 

I have played these pieces for decades; there is no music with which I am more familiar. It may sound like a cliché but every time I come back to them they are different. The other day I played them in London for a recording. At the end of the session we decided it would be worth playing the C minor suite through again and the Allemande was 35 seconds faster than the previous time. Nothing had been discussed and I had not listened to the previous one and made an adjustment. It was a spontaneous thing for better or worse; at the moment it felt better. But imagine that, a movement of four to five minutes being 35 seconds faster. I was delighted. If I have the misfortune to have to listen to performances from long ago I don't recognize myself. The challenge always is to prepare everything meticulously and then to be a thoroughly clean vessel through which the music can flow, as it needs to at that moment, not knowing how it will emerge. Always paradox!



And Rubsam -- who is in a way in the same non-chordal tradition of counterpoint performance as Brookshire was -- once said this to me

You will likely notice that even after repeated listening to
a given track, one can not guess how the next measure is interpreted.

The reason for this is that the scores are not played vertically aligned, but rather
voices are played independently in a cantabile way, so complex, that even I can not
memorize the exact "manner of playing", nor even know myself
how the next measure or phrase might sound. I also can not play a track the same way
again for recording; it will always be colored a different way.

And so I might like those Suites sounding dark, as if played by someone alone in a large country house on a rainy, stormy night and again with a sunny sensibility, as if in springtime at Cafe Zimmermann itself.   

[Mandryka]

And so I might like those Suites sounding dark, as if played by someone alone in a large country house on a rainy, stormy night

 Paul Beier.

[Mandryka]

again with a sunny sensibility, as if in springtime at Cafe Zimmermann itself.   

Lars Ulrich Mortensen. I think the word for it is euthemia.

[prémont]

And so I might like those Suites sounding dark, as if played by someone alone in a large country house on a rainy, stormy night

Alfia Nakipbekova

[prémont]

Lars Ulrich Mortensen. I think the word for it is euthemia.

I think Mortensen uses to be a tad manic.

[vers la flamme]

Is Leonhardt's Bach a mixed bag? It seems weird to even think about such a serious artist who dedicated his life, more or less, to this single composer, but I'm asking because I think I agree with DBK that his EMI English Suites, and the Partitas for that matter, are a bit on the academic side. However, I LOVE his French Suites (Seon—I need to get this on CD), his AOF, and his Goldberg (I have the Teldec). Mixed feelings about his WTC, or maybe I'm just never in the right mood when I go to put it on. Truth be told the WTC is a work I have yet to fully come to terms with.

[Mandryka]

Is Leonhardt's Bach a mixed bag? It seems weird to even think about such a serious artist who dedicated his life, more or less, to this single composer, but I'm asking because I think I agree with DBK that his EMI English Suites, and the Partitas for that matter, are a bit on the academic side. However, I LOVE his French Suites (Seon—I need to get this on CD), his AOF, and his Goldberg (I have the Teldec). Mixed feelings about his WTC, or maybe I'm just never in the right mood when I go to put it on. Truth be told the WTC is a work I have yet to fully come to terms with.

Analytic maybe, rather than academic. He sometimes chooses to draw the listener's attention to details - the phrases in the music.  Not necessarily at the expense of élan though.

[Mandryka]

I just put on his EMI Partita 4 allemande after writing that. It really is a good example of music as rhetoric  - the phrases articulated in a way which makes the whole  like an eloquent address to the listener. If "academic" implies dry and dull, I can hardly imagine anything less academic.

[prémont]

The discussion about the academic side of Leonhardt was regarding his French suites and DBK particularly mentioned the Seon recording of the first English suite. No one has said that the EMI recordings were academic.

[Mandryka]

The discussion about the academic side of Leonhardt was regarding his French suites and DBK particularly mentioned the Seon recording of the first English suite. No one has said that the EMI recordings were academic.

It was @vers la flamme 's comment.

[prémont]

It was @vers la flamme 's comment.

Yes, and @vers la flamme misunderstood the point when he referred to DBK.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The discussion about the academic side of Leonhardt was regarding his French suites and DBK particularly mentioned the Seon recording of the first English suite. No one has said that the EMI recordings were academic.

Correct. I meant to say that if Leon's French Suites were considered to be dry, or similar term, the Seon English Suites wouldn't be different. Still these recordings sound colorful and refined in comparison to the equivalent recordings by other harpsichordists during the same time period.

I wonder why Leon didn't re-record the entire French Suites.

[vers la flamme]

Yes, and @vers la flamme misunderstood the point when he referred to DBK.

So I did. I'm revisiting the Leonhardt/Bach/EMI recordings that I have now to see what I was missing. Currently the 4th Partita that Mandryka mentioned liking, it sounds good.

[milk]

This is simply wonderful. It's delicate and simple. I don't know how to describe this finger-work, technically. He does a lot of varying, accentuating, expressing the music with his control over each particular note, each finger I guess. I don't know. He avoids dynamics almost completely and Rubato is very subtle yet there's a lot of expressiveness here. It's a lovely take on GBVs. He really paints pictures.