Customer Reviews

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I think the Well Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach is THE best music ever written by anyone ever! It's just perfect, I've been listening to and playing some of this music for about 15 years now and I never get tired of it, there is so much variety and so many brilliant musical ideas here that you never really understand all of it and so it is constantly surprising you, on the surface this music may not be complex it is just a prelude and a fugue in all the major and minor keys, but it has the same kind of perfection as you find in nature it is like looking at water or a fire or a beautiful tree, the basic form is simple but it has an endless variety to it so you never get bored.

But when I first herd this music I was a bit dissapointed it all sounded the same, but after a few more listenings I slowly discovered it's beauty and perfection.

I have many recordings of the WTC (Richter, Jarrett, Gould, Jando) all good but this recording by Andras Schiff is my favorite, his playing is deep and smooth and he brings out the calmness and the spiritual side of this masterpiece, just perfect.

For those who would like to play this Masterpiece check out the books by Siglind Bruhn which cover both books one and two of the WTC, they are realy good and go deeply into the work covering technical formal and performing aspect of the work.

Schiff plays Bach in the most wonderfully natural manner there could possibly is.... the voicing is incredible as each voice in J.S. Bach is brought out, as if it were really 4 or 5 voices singing. The natural beauty of the melody is truly unparalleled. Schiff recently performed both Book I and II in Carnegie Hall, and this CD (book I), although not as good as his live performances (as they were recorded over a decade ago), still show a very mature and musical performance that cannot be missed. As for people who are more of a Glenn Gould fan, I think that is a very subjective opinion and by no manner should one discriminate one over another. After all, Gould was playing about 30 years before this CD recording.... and if Gould fans ever realised that even Mr. G himself played many versions of the each (Bach) piece, then one should really have no excuse putting Schiff's version down. Schiff brings out a version of Bach's pieces which I'm sure J.S. Bach would most adore for its natural beauty.....

This is a very fine version of the WTC bk I. The tone is luminous and intellectually sound. I love the fact that the playing is so sung rather than frenetic - for example the C sharp major prelude and fugue - and listen to the descending bass melodies in the d minor prelude - then enjoy the languorous Eb major prelude and fugue and it just goes on from there.

This is first rate musicianship and awfully fine keyboard playing. Some might wish for a more idiosynchratic approach, but that can get awfully tiresome unless you are a very special kind of genius. Schiff is a fine musician and I have heard him live playing a Bartok piano concerto - he has all the technique he needs to make all the music he cares to.

You could do a lot worse than this recording.

I have just revisited Schiff's Well-tempered Clavier and it is as fresh as always. Nonetheless, it occurs to me that:

(i) Schiff has captured Bach's spirit very well-- he has Bach in his soul above all;

(ii) nonetheless it was recorded over twenty years ago when Schiff was comparatively young;

(iii) he keeps listening to and referring to Edwin Fischer's Well-tempered Clavier all the time;

(iv) he has been playing these Preludes/Fugues as morning showers all these years, so, he must have a deeper understanding of these pieces as by now he has become a more sophisticated Master Musician;

(v) the recording of these CDs however good they were, still leaves something more to be desired, note for example the difference between the left hand and the right hand-- due most likely to the accoustics of the place where the pieces were recorded-- so that the unity some of these pieces were in check. So it is perhaps time that Schiff should record them for a second time, for the benefit of all the piano students and the enjoyment of all audiences.

Until that happens, and for the more curious and ardent audience, other than Edwin Fischer and Glenn Gould, they could perhaps also try the more outspoken versions from Gulda and Richter. As for the students preparing these works, they could also refer to the lyrical and soulful rendition of Horszowski and the equally impeccable version by Nikolayeva.

Give me Schiff's recording anyday! Whilst I'd never argue with the technical brilliance of Gould, in my humble opinion he plays it like an exercise. Schiff plays it like it's music! You submerge yourself in it and it moves your soul. Truly inspirational.

I'll avoid invidious comparisons with other versions, as this set deserves to stand alone. Schiff is a real artist, a musician of immense intellect and a consummate pianist whose playing of this music is always considered but never sacrifices spontaneity. Playing of this calibre can make authenticity debates superfluous.

My enthusiasm for classic music began when I listened the Well Tempered Clavier for the first time. I was about 19 years old and that was a still excelent recording from the Brazilian specialist in Bach, JCMartins. Over the years (I am now approaxing 60) I am still fascinated by these pieces and had listened most players. Aside for Vanda Landowska in a different instrument, for me Andras Shiff is the definitive player of these pieces in the piano.

According the great tradition of the great pianists, Schiff has written his name with golden letters in the musical memory. His approach reveals a sharp and zealous sense of the counterpoint, the smart changes of modulation, polished tune, expressive daintiness, careful phrasing and accurate balance.

The well tempered clavier demands from the player a countless amount of requisites that Schiff owns. His playing is at the meantime, evocative and reflexive, thunderous and lyric, grandeur and éclat, he never abuses of pedal and every little bar fits adequately into the context. Sometimes he makes remind us to Edwin Fisher in which sense of the span concerns, but his magisterial approach reveals an overwhelming accomplishment.

I agree with other reviewers. This is one of the best recording I have heard, combining great sound, with great technique, sensitivity, and execution. Others I have listened to include Richter, Gould, Feltsman and Hewitt. I am not at all a fan of the Hewitt. I like a few of the Richter pieces, but overall, my other favorites are Gould (so much energy) and Feltsman, who gets many of these right on.

It is impossible to imagine anyone not loving Bach's Well-tempered Clavier. The first prelude is so familiar... Gounod turned into his "Ave Maria", and so many fair to middling piano students have studied this piece. Of course, the other 23 pieces are not be so familiar, but they are accessable and all well worth the time spent getting to know them.

You have to love this recording! Schiff plays in a way that you actually hear the voices; his phrasing of the counterpoint makes the music so accessable. This particular recording has clearly stood the test of time. Schiff made it back in the mid-60's.

I first discovered Schiff's Well-tempered Clavier recordings because Ted Liddy recommended them in his "The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection". I forgot about the recordings for a while only to re-discover them after an i-tunes foul-up. It is one of the few times I would be thankful for a technological problem.

I highly recommend this recording.