Customer Reviews

Bach: The Landowska Recordings [Box Set]

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Wanda Landowska's performance style and her Pleyel harpsichords have become enshrouded in many layers of legend and myth. Her instrument, which she helped design with the engineers of the Pleyel piano firm in Paris, has been dismissed as more piano than harpsichord, which really isn't true. The essential difference between a piano and harpsichord is that the piano hits the string, while the harpsichord plucks it. The Pleyel harpsichords have the usual mechanics of a jack with a moveable tongue upon which is mounted the plectrum that plucks the string. In all this, the Pleyel is traditional.

When listening to a Landowska performance, we must keep in mind that she was fighting an uphill battle to win converts to the harpsichord, which was considered a frail and anemic instrument, an early version of the piano. But Landowska knew--and proved--that the harpsichord was an instrument in its own right, and not just a primitive piano. So anyone who feels her playing is not as "authentic" as later harpsichordists, such as Gustav Leonhardt or Ton Koopman, should remember that without her, those other musicians would be playing on Steinways today.

Landowska's design deviated from original instruments in two main areas. First, since she had to tour with the instrument, she wanted one as sturdy and stable as possible, so they used a steel frame, as in a modern piano, for the strings, and used an outer case much thicker than old harpsichords. The result is that far from being too loud, the Pleyel instrument actually has less resonance and carrying power than older instruments with thin, sound-amplifying cases. If Pleyels on record sound loud or bangy, it's because they were miked so closely; the solution is simply to turn down the volume when you're playing a Landowska recording.

Her other adaptation was to have foot pedals to change the registers, instead of hand-stops. Registers refers to the number of strings for each key. On a large Pleyel, the lower keyboard has three strings for each key, one at regular pitch (called 8-foot), one an octave higher (called 4-foot) and, most controversially, one an octave lower (called 16-foot); the upper keyboard has an additional 8-foot register. Thus, when the two keyboards are coupled with full registration, four strings sound for every key depressed, giving a very full sound. While 16-foot stops were pretty rare in the 18th century, they did exist. Where Landowska was most audacious was in using the foot pedals to change the registration while she was playing, something that cannot be done easily with hand-stops. To placate listeners who were not familiar with its sound, she incorporated brilliant changes of registration that, some argue, would not have been possible on old instruments.

I was once privileged to have some conversations with the late harpsichordist Igor Kipnis, and I asked his opinion of Landowska's playing. He said that of course we know that not everything she did was "authentic," but that her musicianship was so superb that one doesn't care. More emphatically, the composer Virgil Thomson, who was also a music critic, once wrote of Landowska, "She plays the harpsichord better than anyone else ever plays anything!" That's pretty high praise, but at times it's hard to disagree with him. Was her technique diminished by age by the time she made her RCA recordings? Perhaps, but through numerous retakes or whatever they had to do, they ended up with flawless performances.

Landowska's RCA recordings, being made in the LP era, have much better sound than many of her earlier recordings for other labels, and they feature the crowning glory of her discography, Bach's complete Well-Tempered Clavier. She didn't do many other "complete" recordings of sets of pieces (she had recorded the 15 Two-Part Inventions and was in the process of recording the 15 Three-Part Sinfonias at the time of her death); most of her other recordings for RCA or other labels are recital-like collections of various composers. Be aware that this set includes only her Bach recordings for RCA; she recorded many other things for them as well. Let's hope those are released in a subsequent set. She was a true original and a historic pioneer; her legacy deserves to be preserved, and this set is a great place to start.

This is magnificent music at a tremendous value. In this set, you get all seven disks of the Landowska Bach recordings for less than $40.00--incredible! The beautiful and haunting harpsichord renditions are about as close to the original interpretations as we're likely to get. Only one warning: This is not good music to listen to for long periods, especially if you are not all that familiar with the works. Take it in small doses and enjoy it again and again!

Wanda Landowska was one of the GREATEST exponents of the harpsichord much earlier than many other artists. She also knew a great deal about Bach, the way he thought, the way he wrote and he household inventory of instruments. If you read her notes in the original editions of the cd's, you will find that she thoroughly analyzed, over a period of years, each individual piece for its technical requirements, its emotional content and for its correct tempo. She was the first to program the complete Goldberg Variations and to record them. She had the firm of Pleyel in Paris build a harpsichord for her according to older specifications, and this produced a miracle in sound. One can actually hear choirs and layers of sounds in the Well-Tempered Klavier and in the variations. She also recorded AT HOME, in her own living room, sometimes driving the engineers to near despair in her pursuit of perfection. John Pffeifer writes about her coming downstairs in the afternoon to check on him and his associate and covering them with blankets for their afternoon nap. This was no ordinary lady. As she grew older, her age cannot be heard in the playing. She made some of her final recordings in her late seventies. Those fingers could fly and produce beautiful sounds. Some commentators have spoken of her "Divine poundings", but in my opinion, this is how Bach should sound. I value these cd's and her playing as some of the most valuable in my cd collection. I HIGHLY recommend them to all listeners, be they newcomers to the literature of the harpsichord, or if they have studied Bach for years. There is always something to be learned from these performances.

I've been studying and playing music since I was 12. One day when I was about 15 I found an old long play record of Wanda Landowska. It was the second part of book 1 from The well tempered clavier. It was shocking!!!!!!! I couldn't believe the beauty of what I was listening to. During the following years I kept wondering where could I find the remaining part of her recordings...until I found them here.
My copy arrived today...I'm listening to it right now...as it happened 32 years ago...I'm in awe. Today, THIS 47-year-old is feeling the same thrill felt by THAT teenager in the 70's. Bach's magic......Landowska's wand.

I must agree with the previous reviewer in that for most people, listening to this type of music should be in short time spans. However, I'm not one of those people, so if you are like me this is a great deal All seven discs for less than either of The Well Tempered Clavier recordings available. If your not sure about this music, try out some of the sample material before you buy it because this may not be for everyone. (If it is though, check out Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord!)

Although I don't agree with all the interpretatons, Landowska's grasp of the late Baroque style, both rhythm and ornamentation, is still the epitome of the art of harpsichord performance.

I was amazed to find this collection at such a reasonable price. I listened to it years ago on a friends record player and had always wanted a copy. This is a truly great collection of performances by one of the masters of Bach performance.

I would only like to commend John Schauer of Chicago for his refreshingly open and positive comments about Wanda Landowska's playing. A student of Malcolm Bilson and player of modern and historic instruments, I remain of the musician's opinion if the performer isn't intelligently and sensitively communicating, then the choice of instrument hardly matters. Landowska was simply one of the GREAT musicians of history, bringing breath-taking insight and sunlit passion into the music of an otherwise unjustly ignored composer (yes, JS Bach!). Her WTC Book 2 brings astonishing revelations to this music. I love her for her courage and prophetic vision.

...especially the WTC, and belong in the music library of every Bach lover. Other reviewers have eloquently described the special nature and precious value of this set - be sure to check out the excellent review by John Schauer for more details about Landowska's incredible Pleyel instruments - so let me just add that her EMI recording of the Goldbergs, the Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, and the Italian Concerto catch WL at the absolute pinnacle of her powers and are some of the most thrilling Bach on record. There is also a phenomenal Mercury recording of the Overture In The French Style (Partita in b) performed on a Pleyel harpsichord by Landowska's student, Rafael Puyana, with very nearly the same kind of stunning authority and emotional depth. (The Overture is one of Bach's greatest later keyboard masterpieces, but was never recorded by WL as far as I can tell.) I enjoy Bach on many different kind of harpsichords, but the recordings of Landowska and Puyana stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Pleasant recording of a genius at work. There is no sound quite like the harpsichord and Landowska was one of the best players.