Bach - Partita No. 1 in B flat, BWV 825

[perfect_pitch]

Greetings everyone... well I've been busy for the last couple of months, thinking about re-taking the Fellowship of Music exam in Australia, and here is a practice run of one my pieces. I will be recording this as a real performance this Sunday for my piano teacher at a piano teachers workshop I'm attending, so I would be grateful for any input you can give me.

The video here is me from 2010, so anyone who has waaaaay too much time on their hands, if they are able to listen to both the video and audio and tell me whether I've gone in the right direction in the last 18 months towards performing a more authentic interpretation of Bach, I would really be grateful.

Here are the first 3 movements of this and the recording of me playing in 2010...

2010 Performance...

[perfect_pitch]

Here are the last 3 movements of this and the recording of me playing in 2010...

2010 Performance...

[koopakool]

That was beautiful! I can listen to Bach non-stop for hours. It's meditative. I liked the Corrente and Menuets best but all six movements were flawless congratz!

[brogers70]

That was great, very clear, the tempi just right (or at least just the way I like them). In the prelude the three separate lines were very clear and independent, beautiful. In Minuet I, although there are only two lines, there are often three voices and you brought out that aspect very nicely. I play the Gigue with the opposite hands, melody in the right, triplets in the left, but only because I know that the way you play it was Czerny's idea and I hate Czerny, and I do find it a bit easier. My only suggestion would be to cut back on the pedal a little bit in the Sarabande, and to not use it at all on the final arpeggio of the Gigue. I really enjoyed this and hope you'll post more Bach. Thank you.

[perfect_pitch]

Hey Brogers & koopakool...

Sorry for the delay in replying. Had my recital last night at my piano teachers house.

First of all - thanks koopakool for the kind remarks. I wish they were flawless, as I still have a couple of minor things to fix. For me, I'm still a little ashamed of it as I need to try and perform it at a level worthy of the professionals. The one thing I really want to be able to do is play these pieces at an extremely high level.

Brogers... Glad you like the tempo. It's the one thing I've thought and re-corrected multiple times throughout the last few months. For me, the only reason I decided to do the Gigue melody LH and triplets RH, was because I had more control with my right hand and figured, it would be easier to keep the triplets even this way, and leave the crotchets for the LH. Never even thought of doing it the other way round, and I definitely haven't played any Czerny sadly enough.

You are probably right (not just because it's your opinion, but probably because it keeps it more authentic) about the Sarabande and the pedaling. Although, I do like the idea about having the pedal in the last minim beat of the Gigue... although I should probably just use a half or even quarter pedal instead of what I did. I will try and record it a couple more times, before I leave it for a while.

My next piece to work on is the Brahms Variations on a theme by Paganini, Op 35.

[brogers70]

One of the reasons I dislike Czerny is his terrible taste wrt Bach. A perfect example is that at the end of the Bb Prelude from WTC I, Czerny thought Bach made a mistake by ending with a quiet arpeggio rising and vanishing into thin air, so he added a forte octave Bb in the bass at the end. My Alfred edition of WTC notes that Tovey called this the single most philistine printed chord in the history of music. Anyway, the reason I like the final arpeggio of this Gigue to be without pedal is that it, too, can sort of lightly vanish into the atmosphere. But for the Sarabande, I don't think you have to be dogmatically anti-pedal for the sake of authenticity, just that there were a couple of spots where it seemed a little blurry. I wish I could play the whole partita as well as you do.

[furtwaengler]

I listened to the recent recording a couple of times, and then I have just heard the 2010 recording, which I think is excellent, certainly the best I've heard you do in this piece. In fact I think anything I'd have said about the recent recording is cancelled out by the resonance of the space and instrument of the video. The sarabande is especially beautiful - you give it the space to breath and express itself. I love this partita, and it's always nice to heard a good recording of it.

[emill]

hi!

lovely, gentle soothing .... wish I could be more technical and precise
but am limited to the effect of the piece and the pianist who performed it.
THANKS!!