Bach - Prelude and Fugue in e minor, BWV855 (WTC I)

[andhow04]

the tenth prelude and fugue from WTC I in e minor, the fugue is a very unusual in that it is the only fugue int he 48 that is in two parts, it is a bit like a two-part invention.  the prelude is very improvisatory with an oboe-like melody over a rolling accompaniment, that then becomes the main material in a presto second half.
once again i recorded these on the tune talk but had to aml=plify it in audacity... also i started to notice the piano i am using (steinway d) going out of tune... that may not be fixed till the fall!

(4)

UPDATE: 2/1/13 surreptitiously replaced this p&f as i had to artificially make this version louder, it didn't sound as good as the others

[iratior]

I was wondering why you chose to do the prelude at the relatively slow tempi.  On the harpsichord, Ralph Kirkpatrick does it much faster.  Now, a piano has less sostenuto than a harpsichord, so the natural direction would be to go in the opposite direction, to do things faster rather than slower.  I'm not saying it's wrong;   I just wonder what your rationale is.  I do find that, at the tempo you chose, pleasant resemblances of the harmonies to those of the middle movement of the fourth Brandenburg concerto become more noticeable.

[andhow04]

I was wondering why you chose to do the prelude at the relatively slow tempi.  On the harpsichord, Ralph Kirkpatrick does it much faster.  Now, a piano has less sostenuto than a harpsichord, so the natural direction would be to go in the opposite direction, to do things faster rather than slower.  I'm not saying it's wrong;   I just wonder what your rationale is.  I do find that, at the tempo you chose, pleasant resemblances of the harmonies to those of the middle movement of the fourth Brandenburg concerto become more noticeable.

thanks for your comments.  yes i have the kirkpatrick recordings, my tempo on the prelude is closer to gould's i suppose, though without his unique articulation of course.  i just wanted to indulge in the melancholy of the thing, and make the rolling accompaniment figure sound rather like a sighing motif.