Customer Reviews

Well Tempered Synthesizer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...This album, Carlos' follow up to Switched On Bach, is actually better than it's predecessor. This is to be expected as the technology improved, but perhaps more importantly, Carlos' feeling and attention to detail improved as well. The timbres are lighter and airer, and there is a greater sense of rhythm and intensity. And there is always something eerie about this work, and with most of her early recordings. The sounds are fluttery, elusive, sometimes off tune, and the pitches waver. I'm always struck at how bold her sound is, compared to other artists like the ethereal Isao Tomita, and this album is all the more rich and powerful because of it. If you have to own one of her early recordings, this is the one to get. The haunting final Monteverdi piece, with its strange, beautiful, and terrifying electronic vocals is worth the price of admission alone.

This was Wendy's second album released around 1970. The readings of the Scarlatti and Handel are very well done with good tempos and bright arrangements. The Monteverdi is also an amazing piece of early synthesizer work. Perhaps the crown work on this album is Bach's 4th Brandenburg Concerto, which Glenn Gould once called the the most perfect interpretation.

I'm by no means well-versed in classical music, but this album served as an peppy invitation to me as a child. My parents did not expose me to music in the form of, say, piano lessons, but my father did bring home demo albums of all types from the radio station he worked for. I wore out his copy of "The Well-Tempered Synthesizer," ran off with it to college and, over 20 years later, I still have that scuffed and skipping copy today. I waited a long, long time for this to be distributed on CD, and prayers were answered first with the Switched-On Box Set. A much different feel than the Bach albums, this work is my hands-down favorite. If you prefer D. Scarlatti to Wagner, you will love it. Please try it.

Many people know the first Wendy (then Walter) Carlos album, the more than justly acclaimed Switched-on Bach, a marvellous album representing a sort of Best of Bach but also the first album totally executed on the Moog Synthesizer and the one that helped more than a bit the world to know and embrace the new sounds and peculiarities of what at the time wasn't even considered an instrument. For me it was the album that turned me on to electronic music and to this day is one of my favourite instrumental albums regardless of genres. Funny then that only recently did I find the need to purchase other Carlos' albums! However, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, while not reaching the heights of its predecessors is a very good album indeed, introducing a welcome variety by adding other musicians to the mighty Bach and Scarlatti's music seem particularly apt to be translated. Quite interesting also Monteverdi's, while Handel's is a bit weak but still pleasant enough. Hats off once again to Bach's, there is a special empathy that makes the performance invigorating and memorable. I'd definitely recommend this one to whoever owns Switched-on Bach and to fans of electronic music in general.

I remember listening to this when I was 4 years old and living in Chicago Ill. in 1973. I would drive my family crazy on Sunday afternoons playing this and Switched on Bach. This is what got me into classical music and it reminds me of the first girl I had a crush on in Kindergarten. My parents bought this for my and my older brothers to get us interested in music, well it worked for me the first time I heard this wonderful album. The first 5 pieces are very romantic sounding and the very last piece on the album is hauntingly beautiful. It has that late sixties early seventies sound to it. True artistic expression that Wendy Carlos uses in this.

I heard "The Well-Tempered Synthesizer" when it was first issued; like many people I was stunned by the strange, beautiful sound created by a "machine". Then I read about the difficulty of making the recordings, which took tremendous time and thoughtfulness, and this made me appreciate the human element more than the technology.

Imagine someone who, to cook breakfast, designs a henhouse, raises chickens, gathers the eggs, grinds wheat to make bread, picks fresh strawberries...all for a breakfast that could be made more easily using traditional sources or methods. Pardon the clumsy metaphor, but this is what Carlos had done: giving me Bach, by creating a new kind of chicken to get to the egg.

The sounds one hears in this recording are not as sophisticated as more modern synthetic voices, but they are still pristine and haunting. There is a sort of lonely, cosmic emptiness to the sound, but this is not discomforting; in fact, the music triumphs over the strangeness that no human hand or throat moved during the process, except at the keyboard and the 747-cockpit looking control panel of the Moog synthesizer.
Having a CD of this music is a joy, and the music delights.

I love that electronic sound and Walter/Wendy's arrangements. I have been listening to my dad's LP of "Well-Tempered Synthesizer" since I was a small child and now it's getting somewhat scratchy, so I'll buy the CD. I also enjoyed the music in "A Clockwork Orange".

Wendy Carlos does an excellent job of updating all of the Classical pieces on this CD, as well as on all of her other CDs. I originally had this on Open Reel Tape, and am really happy that she has ported it over to the CD format! All of the selections on this CD can only be termed as "stirring" and it is enjoyable to hear each time it is played.

I loved listening to this when I was growing up. I was very glad to find it on CD. A very nice CD to listen to to relax.

Wendy Carlos' debut album Switched On Bach from 1968 was a bombshell of electronic/moog music which started a whole new genre.
This follow up, The Well Tempered Synthesizer, may be less well known, however a very high standard of musicanship is maintained.
This time as well Bach there are works from Monteverdi, Scarlatti and Handel.
If you like electronic music you are likely to enjoy this one !