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Monday, September 18, 2017

Johann Sebastian Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier (Sviatoslav Richter)


Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

CD1:
  • (01-14) Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book I: Prelude & Fugue Nos. 1-14, BWV 846-859
CD2:
  • (01-10) Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book I: Prelude & Fugue Nos. 15-24, BWV 860-869
CD3:
  • (01-13) Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book II: Prelude & Fugue Nos. 1-13, BWV 870-882
CD4:
  • (01-11) Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book II: Prelude & Fugue Nos. 14-24, BWV 883-893

Sviatoslav Richter, piano
Date: 1970-1973
Label: RCA


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Review

Richter’s Bach holds an unassailable place in the pantheon. His clarity of polyphonic texturing combines with insight into the structural flow to produce the illusion of total identity with the music’s inner world.

Revelation do not claim these as live recordings, and certainly the level of accuracy suggests that they cannot be. Yet if they are not, it is curious that several tracks are accompanied by steady (though unobtrusive) coughing, that the first Prelude comes with the faint but unmistakable distraction of a telephone ringing, and that the G major Fugue has a couple of badly scrambled bars near the end (from 1'55'') which cry out for a retake. Above all there is an edgy intensity to much of the playing which suggests a live situation and which is not to be found on Richter’s other accounts listed above.

Those feel generally more reflective, less extreme. On the new CDs Richter’s concentration in the slowest fugues is almost fanatically fierce, the fastest preludes (C minor, B flat major) are so hard-driven as to be almost obsessional, and some fugues (such as the C minor) have a staccato peckiness that might be better suited to Shostakovich. At such times I turned with relief to my much treasured and little hailed Feinberg set. Yet the depth and breadth of Richter’s understanding generally make niggles about style seem nugatory. In the E flat minor Prelude, for instance, he weighs every chord for its meaning, not in a coldly premeditated way, but simply so as to take us on an absorbing journey through the product of a great musical mind.

The comparative Richter versions are in fact the same recording, made in the Klessheim Castle in Salzburg in July 1970, where the sound is superior, avoiding the considerable acoustic fuzz on Revelation, and the Bosendorfer instrument, placed in a generous but not overpowering ambience, is far more beguiling. By comparison the sound image on the new CDs is awkwardly recessed and constricted, and the piano itself tends towards tinniness. The Chant du Monde comes without booklet-essay, and the absence of the first note of the first Prelude doesn’t inspire confidence; RCA offer the complete 48 in a four-disc package. As a general recommendation I would stick with the RCA set; but I wouldn’t have missed the extra intensity on the Revelation discs for the world.


More reviews:

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Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

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Sviatoslav Richter (March 20 [O.S. March 7] 1915 – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet pianist known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. Having learned the fundamentals of music from his father, Richter taught himself the piano and had already given public concerts before entering the Moscow Conservatory in 1937. Richter probably had the largest discography but he disliked the recording process, and most of Richter's recordings originate from live performances.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_Richter

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