Customer Reviews

Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A very generous friend gave me this set several years ago and I will be forever in her debt. I had never considered buying Sviatoslav Richter playing Bach. For me he simply didn't seem to come out of the right tradition to play the Master of Leipzig. But I was mistaken, completely mistaken. This set of the WTC has become one of my most treasured possessions. For months it was in my car - a perfect way to listen to the Preludes and Fugues, a few at a time while driving short distances around town - and by now these performances are burned into my aural memory, as if they had always been there. There is such a feeling of inevitability about Richter's playing that I now cannot imagine them played any other way. Well, that's not entirely true, but close. Unlike Huibert Jonkers, whose review was posted here some months ago, I was a Glenn Gould groupie who thought his way with Bach was the best way. And though I still admire Gould, I must say that Richter has converted me. It's hard to put one's finger on what it is about Richter's playing except that it is so straightforward and full of good ol' artery-clogging cholesterol and yet so nuanced and highlighted, that it is impossible to resist. It's Romantic, I guess, and that's totally out of fashion these days. But I don't care about that. In fact, as an old pianist who has played the WTC at the keyboard for nigh on sixty years, I continue to have a hard time listening to WTC on the harpsichord. I suspect I'm not alone in that. We've been swept along in recent years by the 'historically-informed performance' folks and yet there are some of us who are not entirely convinced that the old-fashioned way with Bach isn't the best. Richter certainly fits in the 'old-fashioned' camp and that's fine with me.

Others have written here about individual details of these performances and I have little to add there. I am, like others, struck by Richter's wide dynamics and sometimes extreme tempi. For instance, the second prelude in WTC I goes faster than I've ever heard it and it is all the more exciting as a result. The overall shape of the performances, though, reveal a penetrating intellect and flawless technique put at the service of the music, granted Richter's own conception of the music, but who's to say that's not what Bach would have wanted?

I urgently recommend this box, especially since it is so attractively priced.

Scott Morrison

This has been my favorite recording of the WTC (and one of my favorite recordings of anything) for years. While there have been many very fine recordings of the WTC, in my opinion, none comes close to the poetry expressed by Richter in this set. I think the crucial difference with Richter is that he never just plays the notes, he is always looking for, and finding, the beauty of the music. There is literally something special in every moment of his playing.
If you are looking for a recording that will repay the deepest listening and the deepest concentration on your part, look no further, this is it.

i may be wrong, but i blame glenn gould with mucking up the bach playing tradition with ego and stunts ... the humming and singing along, really ... and with few exceptions (schiff for one) it seems the bach playing ever since has tried to be "vivid" -- showy, or blindingly fast, or dynamically contrasty, heck there are so many notes! but richter comes at these pieces in the russian tradition, which is to say the middle european kapelmeister tradition. to my jaded modern ears it's a delightful revelation.

though some preludes are played quite fast, richter's tempos seem slightly on the slow side (by modern standards). but he is still able to link the voices together in continuous song across all registers. there is a remarkable quality of meditation and intense participation in these performances. the fugues are given an individual character, and unfold without mechanical repetition: the recurring themes are inflected differently as they reappear in different voices. the prelude textures are always clean and fluent. many of the interpretations seemed to me completely fresh. the famous C prelude from book 1, for example, can sometimes sound like a merry sewing machine or a happy milkmaid's guitar, but richter makes it seem to float to our ears from far away, soft and weightless -- an unexpectedly poignant effect.

the pieces were recorded in 1970-73 on a boesendorfer piano, which sounds somewhat tubby in the acoustics of the room, but richter gets an excellent aural range through variations in touch and very sparing use of pedal. the acoustics never detract from the presence of the music or richter's remarkable playing. strongly recommended.

Don't die yet! Listen to this first... and know what you'll be missing if you don't go to heaven! These magnific recordings were made during early 70'ties, when Richter was arround 55 years old and on the top of his mastery - making the Bosendorfer piano sing like an angel (!), - a miracle, lets say, that made of it my favorite recording of WTC.

The sound quality is '4 stars', but the musicality is outstanding: on tempos, rubbatos, melodic lines, colors and fit's Richter's recording among other archangels' of this masterwork, as Fischer's, Tureck's, Gould's and Demus's.

As some of the reviwers said I also agree that this is the best performance of the TWC. I don't know if Bach would concieve the speed and magical colors that Richter achieves but Bach is a box of of surprises and if you've got the the talent you can find it all; this is what Richter is able to do. And he shares with us Bach's possibilities, and show us that he (Bach) is the the Master of all ages.

I have long held Richter to be a master of baroque music and polyphonic music in general. Since fugues are a model for conflicting layered themes and their intertwining with other themes, this music can be very difficult and a surprising number of pianists cannot master them. Richter is very serious in anything he plays and you can see that throughout the cycle he is very consistent and never gets lazy. This is what makes Richter so special.... is his mastery and understanding of braod genres of music ( a legitimate criticism, I guess to a certain extent, to Horowitz and Rubinstien who molded their repertoire to suit what they played well). Richter's Baroque is very different than conventional Baroque - more intense, less benign, even agressive at times. I guess it is worthwhile to hold a view versions if one wishes - harpsichord, Richter, maybe Schiff. Overall, this CD is close to my heart.

I have listened to this recording since it was issued on LP in the early 1970s, and never tired of it. Richter performed Bach throughout his long career, and these readings are among his best because his love for the music shines through with almost religious intensity. His approach is lyrical; he sings each prelude and fugue, yet at the same time he's scrupulously aware of Bach's rhythmic and contrapuntal structures. Some of his tempi are extreme: e.g. the C-minor prelude in Book I is played at whirlwind speed. Unfortunately the sound is not very good, perhaps owing to the acoutics of the castle where the recording took place. But the richness and intensity of Richter's playing makes up for everything.

That is to say I won't be listening to Glenn Gould's Bach any time soon since I've discovered this gem of a Bach recording. It would be an understatement to call it a revelation when I first heard this recording, wow!. The first prelude immediately sets the tone, I knew right away at that moment I was listening to something special and I had to have it!. I haven't felt so anxious about a classical recording in a very , VERY long time, over a timespan of just 8yrs that is, but still!. Even the prospect of a new Slayer recording didn't excite me this much!. Interesting detail, Kerry King, the infamous guitartamer from Slayer listens to Bach as well, I guess he rocks as hell!.

My opening remark is a bit harsh regarding Glenn Gould, but that was how I felt when I got acquainted with Richter's Bach, it's like going from one extreme to the other, from Gould being the technically proficient and stupendiously fast notecracker with overwhelming dynamics and unearthly beautifull tone (yeah, he is a genius ,still, and I prefer his eccentricity in playing) to Richter who possesses all of wich Gould represents, but with that little bit more extra in musical insight, touch and genius that makes his version of the Welltempered Klavier THE golden standard.
Previously I preferred Edwin Fischer's version wich is also magnificent, but the average recording quality (it was recorded between '33 and '36 so what do you expect, but still a fantastic achievement!) bummed me a bit from fully appreciating it, but before Richter this one was my golden standard, I should say check it out for about half the price of Richter's.

Although I still don't think that Gould has been dethroned as the greatest Bach performer (for me personally that is),because he stands in a league of his own, I do know now why I felt an unexplainable unease when listening to most (not all) of Gould's "mechanical" Bach, I thought I was lacking musical insight or taste to fully appreciate his genius , but now Richter has made it all clear to me.

ps: please do check out Richter's DVD 'The Enigma'. As a person not as appealing as Gould, though ;)

What these performances show us is that when Bach is played by a master musician, adding almost nothing of himself to the music except the highest taste, technique, and ability to deliniate the lines without utmost clarity, the music that results is spiritually moving in a way that far surpasses the results achieved by a performer who TRIES to be moving by adding his or her own emotions to the performance. Bravo Richter... he never sounded better!

I love the way the Russian school plays Bach (Richter, Gilels, Nikolayeva, Gavrilov, etc.), and particularly this Russian, and these performances. The opening Prelude and Fugue I of Book I is one of the most magical keyboard works I have ever heard, and Richter's playing of it is other worldly--it is incredible. Too many notable Bach pianists--Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Kempff among them--simply rush through this piece, destroying it's profound beauty. I have never understood why they do this. Perhaps they are trying to approach the music from the standpoint of a harpsichordist--in order to sound less romantic, but even on a harpsichord it works better at a slower tempo--at least, to my sensibility. Just have a listen to Pierre Hantai's excellent recording on Mirare--where his choice of tempo is remarkably similar to Richters' and it works wonderfully well, at least to my ears. Of course, I have also enjoyed hearing the opening Prelude played even more slowly--at a more spacious "organ-like" speed, if you will--much in the manner pianist Valery Afanassiev or harpsichordist Bob van Asperen play it on their superb recordings. It sounds very beautiful this way--much more contemplative; although I must admit that Bach, who was known to favor faster speeds, probably played it at a tempo closer to Hantai and Richter.

As for the rest of the Well-Tempered Clavier--it is some of the most towering and influential keyboard music ever written, and absolutely essential in any collection. Beethoven loved this music so much that he copied out fugues from it into his sketchbooks. (It is also the music that he played most in his youth.) While the great cellist Pablo Casals called it the very "foundation of music."

And now for the bad news, the recorded sound here--despite the high quality of Richter's playing--isn't all that great. However, if you can find a 2002 Japanese/ RCA release, it sounds better than this. There is also a more recent 2007 Japanese release, but I have not heard this yet. (But be warned that a Japanese issue from approximately 8-10 years ago is terrible, with the piano sounding as if it was recorded in a tunnel--and no, it is not all due to Richter's use of the pedal). If you can't locate the 2002 Japanese/ RCA release (try Cd Japan or Amazon.co.jp), I would alternately recommend trying to find a long out of print issue from the French "Le Chant de Monde" label. This is probably the best version of all sound-wise, and is superior to the RCA effort.

(EDIT: I recently saw a picture of the 2007 Japanese release mentioned above, and it had the same identical cover as the Japanese set that I bought some 8-10 years ago, and was disappointed with--in other words, it may be a re-release, and if so, I would stay away from it. However, I also noticed that there is a new Japanese release scheduled to come out in October, 2008, which will be a remastering of the original recordings using the new SHM technology. Thus far, the few CDs that I have bought which use this technology have been excellent, and hopefully, this 2008 release will be the new version of choice sound-wise. Check out Amazon.co.jp or cdjapan in October, 2008, or pre-order now. EDIT 2: I have now purchased the new SHM set, released in October of 2008, and am disappointed with the piano sound, which is more reverberant than on the previous 2002 Japanese release. Hence both the 2002 Japanese/ RCA set and the "Chant du Monde" discs remain the best versions that I have heard--as both sets minimize the effect of the piano sounding as if it were recorded at the other end of a tunnel.)

If I could give these performances more than five stars I would; certainly this level of pianism is so rare that it deserves many more. People who think that Richter is overrated should have a listen to these performances; I think they will see what all the fuss is about.