Customer Reviews

Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 / Keith Jarrett

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I, for one, enjoy this album, unlike the reviewers below. The two stars given to the album by that reviewer were unwarranted; No matter how "incompetent" Kamus thinks Jarrett is on this record, the music itself is worth far more than two stars. I am great fan of Jarrett, jazz and classical music. I myself play both classical and jazz trumpet at a professional level (the latter... my classical training is coming along nicely, however) and have Gould's Goldberg Variations as well as excerpts from others. While Gould whirlwinds the Variations and performs it expertly, one can only find oneself wondering how much of the recording is Gould simply pumping Bach's music up to his level, and how much of it is as Bach intended it. The same goes for most recordings of the Clavier, which are either completely stale and "legit", or the indulgences of the artist are too much. In Jarrett's rendition (not interpretation), we see something almost opposite of what Jazz players are notorious for (completely re-interpretation); Jarrett plays the Clavier in a mellow, graceful mood, taking all the designated tempos and resisting "adding" anything to the music. His touch is apparent though, and any staleness of the music which can be exhibited on other recordings of Clavier are gone here. This is not the exciting, furious Bach of Gould, this is the thoughtful, pleasant Bach of Jarrett, void of any changes or overbearing artistic styles. To me, Jarrett has almost gone and removed the "artist" from the equation; we forget it is Jarrett playing and simply listen to the pleasant polyphonic lines, the singing voices, and the shimmering releases. A wonderful album; I wouldn't recommend it over the Gould recording for people looking for an 'interpretation' of Bach, however, if you simply want the Well-Tempered Clavier as written, played in a lyrical but not-over-indulgent style, this is your bag.
I would also encourage listeners who have deemed Jarrett void of classical ability to check out his Handel suites or Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues op. 87, which are phenomenal.

I am a professional organist and am well versed in Baroque performance practices and stylistic specificities. As such, I have performed tons of Bach.

Jarrett's version is the best I have ever heard. I have even stolen some aspects of his interpretation and added them to my own. Some have commented that it was muddy, uninspired, contains errors. I disagree on all counts. I am most puzzled by the claim that there are errors. I play much of the WTC myself and I heard no errors.

I am most annoyed by people who over-interpret Bach as if each performer has a right to own him. Why doesn't this attitude exist for other composers as well? I don't understand. Jarrett sticks to what is on the page (with only the most minor contextually justifiable exceptions, unlike most other performers) and for this alone Jarrett deserves praise. This tells us Bach lovers that Jarrett trusts Bach's notes to do the work. I get the feeling from a lot of other performers that they do not trust Bach since they feel the need to do so much interpretataion.

I found Jarrett's version to be clear and penetrating. I enjoyed his tempos all told more than any other version I can think of. And there was just enough romantic emotionalism to remain within the scale of Baroque practice. Bach, throughout his music, displayed the capacity to render a wide variety of emotion. This fact I don't need to belabor to his fans. And Jarret does a fine job varying the styles of each prelude and fugue to reveal this often ignored side of Bach.

A technical note: Someone commented that Jarrett fails to bring out dominant lines. This shows a complete ignorance of Baroque performance practices and Bach's intentions. The dominant keyboard instruments back then were the organ and harpsichord and neither instrument has touch control. So the idea that Bach's lines should be touched is simply wrong. Also, Bach felt that the horizontal melodic component should be exactly equal to the vertical harmonic component in fugal work, which means bringing out voices was to Bach a philosophical anethema. This is one thing that makes Andras Schiff's version one of the worst, and Jarrett's one of the best.

Not being a jazzer, I can't comment on his jazz performances, which seem to consist of long improvisations which fill whole CDs. But among the interpreters of keyboard contrapuntal virtuosity, such as Glenn Gould and Andras Schiff, Keith Jarrett is a favorite of mine. I am generally not a connoisseur of certain performers or performances over others, but Keith Jarrett's recordings are just . . . more fun. His performances are effortless, and they have a driving rhythm that characterizes Baroque music.

If you like the Bach fugues, you should hear Jarrett's recording of the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues and Händel's dance suites. His tempos are very fast, and he has a certain sense of humor that comes through in all his performances, making what might seem academic, warm and accessible. Keith Jarrett has a real affinity for this music.

Keith Jarret's Bach playing is remarkably good. These are not overly interpreted performances, but rather understated, no frills Bach playing in the style of say, Richter.
You'll find very little to dislike in Jarret's playing. He plays with joy and yet a reverence for these revered and oft studied works. His technique is more than adequate, his phrasing is right on the money, and his tempos are very conservative.
Overall, I'd say that these performances hold up well with the best available recordings out there by classical pianists such as Schiff, Hewitt, Tureck and Richter, and therefore I highly recommend it.
Enjoy

Keith Jarrett is such a fine musician that he, as a composer as well as a performer and a jazz interpreter as well as a classics interpreter, knows when to simply let the written notes be played the way they were written. His Bach is very straightforward: yes, he embellishes in keeping with the indications and musical period of Bach, but he never lets the embellishments sound as though they should call attention to the performer. Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier is performed on the piano while Book Two is performed on the harpsichord. For this listener his piano keyboard Bach is more interesting than his Harpsichord Bach and I'm not at all certain why he elected to change instruments. But perhaps that is simply one more aspect of Jarrett's exploration of works he deems important enough to spend his concentration and time reproducing.

One of the pleasures of Jarrett's playing is his knowledge of how to bring a phrase to a close and for that matter how he prepares for the closing of a variation. It feels right, as though he has thought about Bach's ideas and incorporated them into his own manner of performing. Both of these 2CD albums are very well recorded and make a solid addition to the library: piano keyboard Bach or harpsichord keyboard Bach - both make for repeated frequent listenings. Grady Harp, August 10

Keith Jarrett's jazz playing is suffused with energy. Jarrett plays Jarrett the way Gould plays Bach. This recording is something very different.

The first general complaint is the absence of Gouldian passion - but here we have a great jazz pianist relaxing with a technically demanding series of fugues which he has deliberately refrained from mucking about with. And I agree wholeheartedly with other reviewers who have greeted that unassuming approach with relief. Bach is, dare one say, a much-misunderstood composer in our own age; to "interpret" these astonishing lessons in counterpoint is usually to miss their point. Yet Jarrett plays with warmth and a genuine love for the music which is infinitely pleasing.

The second general complaint, that Jarrett sometimes makes mistakes, is not a lot more serious; there are some bum notes, to be sure. But if you can stand Glenn Gould humming (and thank God Keith, another hummer, is silent on this particular recording) then you should be able to stand the occasional slurred note.

I am delighted to have this recording in my collection. It is far more than a curiosity - it is an opportunity to listen to Bach without a performer's obstreperous ego getting in the way. Highly recommended - and check out Jarrett's other classical recordings for other delights just as great.

Keith Jarrett is rightly lauded as one of the finest Jazz improvisers post 1960. That he has recorded Handel, Mozart and Shostakovich in addition to this album of Bach indicates that he has reached a level of musicianship that few will ever equal, let alone surpass.

These recordings were performed on a modern Piano. However of course the modern Piano did not exist when Bach wrote the pieces. So Jarretts interpretation has a narrow range of expression, reflecting the fact that originally these pieces were most likely performed on Harpsichord.

Off and on I've been listening to these recordings for 15 years now, and as an amateur Pianist myself have found them invaluable when trying to interpret the original sheet music.

I consider Jarrett the best interpretor of Bach. The reason for this is that he leaves his ego out of the picture. He let's Bach's music speak for itself. No quirkiness, no break-neck tempos, no added compositional "improvements." Pure Bach, and that's it! Great!

When I was younger and had less money. They were worth it.

It is good at the fugues of A minor, B flat minor and B minor. Both of the book 1 and 2 of Jarrett's Well-Tempered Clavier are good, when I listen them again. After he studied the improvisations thoroughly, he seems to enjoy playing music as shown in the score. Recording in 1987.