Bach - Prelude and Fugue in a minor, BWV889 (WTC II)

[andhow04]

the prelude & fugue in a minor from the secon dbook.
didn't have the usual space available so recorded it on a 6'1" (i think() baldwin in a domestic setting, you can hear a dog walking around and some motorcycle revving in the background !
also it is a very dry acoustic.

i don't udnerstand this tunetalk microphone, in this space i didn't have to adjust the dynamic at all on audacity, but in the place where i usually record it is always too soft and i have to amplify it.  the microphone is the same distance away both times, and the other piano is much larger (steinway d).  maybe it is too loud and the thing over compensates?  i dunno.

(5)

UPDATE: becase of the poor quality of the recording and the dry piano sound i surreptitiously replaced it with a more recent version, also to better keep all the WTC recordings more consistent in sound

[iratior]

If there's one word I think most emphatically does not describe the style Bach sets in this fugue, it's "mellow".  I like the way you go along with that setting, and bring out the feistiness, the tension, the testiness of this fugue.  I use legato instead of staccato for the main voice but seek the same result.

[andhow04]

If there's one word I think most emphatically does not describe the style Bach sets in this fugue, it's "mellow".  I like the way you go along with that setting, and bring out the feistiness, the tension, the testiness of this fugue.  I use legato instead of staccato for the main voice but seek the same result.

thanks for your comments.  about the articulation, i remember reading that richter said he started using the music for concerts because no pianists could ever remember everything that was written down on the page.  in the short time i took to memorize this fugue, i had somehow transferred the wedge-staccato marks that bach himself put on the eihtgh notes onto the quarter notes as well!  in my mind they were on both, but they aren't, they are only on the eighth notes.
anyways, i find this fugue a joy to play. t hanks for listening!

[scottmcc]

Anyhow, as usual your Bach is fantastic, and I'm especially jealous that you can learn it so quickly.  It takes me months to memorize anything by Bach for some reason, even though I can usually memorize a page of music within a few days of concentrated effort.  This fugue speCifically really reminds me of the various fugues in the late beethoven sonatas, which I very my enjoy.  Thanks!