VIDEO: Prelude and Fugue in C Major BWV 846 by J.S. Bach

[michael_sayers]

From a performance on December 13, 2003, in Dallas, Texas.

[perfect_pitch]

That was quite possibly the worst, slowest, most painful playing I have ever heard. WHY? Did you play it at half the tempo??? You turned a little prelude & fugue into a 7 MINUTE VIDEO???

SERIOUSLY???

That was just agonising to listen to. If you thought you could play it more emotional or poetic by playing it slower, you were WRONG!!!

Granted the Fugue wasn't quite as slow as the Prelude, but the Prelude was just awful. Why would you play it that slow??? There was a part where you played a phrase at 15 bpm - Rubato in Bach? - NO!!!

[michael_sayers]

Hi perfect_pitch,

Choice of tempo is not something for which one necessarily can provide a satisfactory explanation.

I appreciate you taking the time to listen and also for having provided a critique of the interpretation.


Mvh,
Michael

[cbreemer]

That was quite possibly the worst, slowest, most painful playing I have ever heard.

Come on perfect_pitch, that is stretching things a little  The worst playing ever is to be found here:

[michael_sayers]

Hi cbreemer,

It is nice to see you here breemer and not only at P.W.!


Mvh,
Michael

[perfect_pitch]

Choice of tempo is not something for which one necessarily can provide a satisfactory explanation.

I appreciate you taking the time to listen and also for having provided a critique of the interpretation.

You've taken a piece of music and played it at less than half speed. This is wrong... and unfortunately a persons choice of tempo should have an explanation. You don't just pick a tempo at random, so I'd like to know what your reasoning behind this was...

Come on perfect_pitch, that is stretching things a little  The worst playing ever is to be found here:

When you play parts of a prelude at 15bpm, I think that overrules anything... but I see what you're getting at.

[michael_sayers]

Hi perfect_pitch,

The explanation of the choice of tempo is that it was innate and instinctive.


Mvh,
Michael

[ronde_des_sylphes]

It's hard to agree with the tempo, and harder to agree with the way in which I believe you've tried to make more out of the rh figuration than there really is. However, I will say this: if the listener is prepared to be open-minded, maybe even to view it as a recreation as a new piece, then the performance might lead him/her to question certain fundamental aspects of conventional, 'acceptable' interpretation. Thus, whilst I don't agree with the performance, I find it has merit as an abstract, convention-challenging intellectual statement, for it IS performed with a certain amount of conviction and competence, even in all its eccentricities.

[j_menz]

I actually don't have a huge problem with the tempo. I do, however have issues with the tempo fluctuations and the dynamic eccentricities.  If I thought it were a reworking of the piece, as ronde-des-sylphs suggests, I could leave it as something interesting but  not (to me) appealing. 

My suspicion, though, is that OP has brought a whole lot of external emotion to the piano and the piece itself has been ignored except insofar as it gives him some notes to bang out to channel that external idea/feeling. As a result, it simply doesn't work on any level.

Either play the piece you are playing, or improvise/write a piece to say that which you wish to say. Don't confuse the two - it does justice neither to the Bach nor to what it is you want to express.

[cbreemer]

It is nice to see you here breemer and not only at P.W.!

I've never been at Piano World !

[perfect_pitch]

The explanation of the choice of tempo is that it was innate and instinctive.

Well, whatever it was - it was wrong. You need to seriously consult a teacher/tutor and really get some proper training at the piano. Playing like that in a recital is just shockingly bad.

Don't be one of those people who completely desecrate classical music. Keep it at the highest levels possible...

[michael_sayers]

Well, whatever it was - it was wrong. You need to seriously consult a teacher/tutor and really get some proper training at the piano. Playing like that in a recital is just shockingly bad.

Don't be one of those people who completely desecrate classical music. Keep it at the highest levels possible...

Hi perfect_pitch,

Though I very much am self-taught, I had a superb experience in my youth in a concert pianist's studio for two years in which many valuable things were learned, and in addition was a Piano Performance Major.  Being in my opinion sufficiently equipped with the methodologies for acquiring and maintaining piano technique, and a sound basis for tone production, further training does not seem necessary.  There are of course technical issues with the playing as I hadn't practiced since 1995 except for a week here or there before some performances and some recording, as was the situation with this December 2003 recital from which these selections were excerpted for YouTube, and you are quite right to observe this.  In regard to the interpretations, I don't personally feel there is anything amiss with a romantic approach to Bach's music when it is played on a piano rather than on a harpsichord, clavichord or organ, which seems to be the issue at contention here.  Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion.


Mvh,
Michael

[liszt1022]

My question is basically why post a 12 year old video of something you hadn't practiced in 8 years?

[perfect_pitch]

In regard to the interpretations, I don't personally feel there is anything amiss with a romantic approach to Bach's music when it is played on a piano rather than on a harpsichord, clavichord or organ, which seems to be the issue at contention here. 

You know what... I'm just going to leave this here...



(And yes, I feel it is also weird posting a 12-year old video. My opinion is that you are basically trying to fish for YouTube views...)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I suspect this goes well beyond what, for example, Busoni might have done. I would be more comfortable if you had presented it as 'paraphrase on' but, while I certainly don't agree with what you've done, I retain an open mind as to where it lies between the endpoints of 'interestingly eccentric' and 'wilfully controversial'.

[michael_sayers]

My question is basically why post a 12 year old video of something you hadn't practiced in 8 years?

(And yes, I feel it is also weird posting a 12-year old video. My opinion is that you are basically trying to fish for YouTube views...)

perfect_pitch: Why would someone place a video on YouTube if it isn't wanted for anyone to see it?  Of course it is hoped that the videos will be viewed.  That is not an end in itself: what is hoped for is response and discussion.  One of the things I am liking about Piano Street is the candour of the posts.  These videos were posted recently at P.W. with only compliments and balanced response received, which is nice, but I don't think it is plausible that everyone will like any particular pianist's videos.  There are even some persons out there who don't like classical music  .

I suspect this goes well beyond what, for example, Busoni might have done. I would be more comfortable if you had presented it as 'paraphrase on' but, while I certainly don't agree with what you've done, I retain an open mind as to where it lies between the endpoints of 'interestingly eccentric' and 'wilfully controversial'.

I think you may be right about this going far beyond Busoni, yet perhaps it is hard to really know this for sure?  There are grammophone recordings of Busoni, but Gunnar Johansen, who heard Busoni perform live, wrote that what is on those recordings sounds nothing like Busoni.  In the early 1920s a disc for recording could only hold a modest number of minutes of music, and pianists often altered both tempo and dynamics to accomodate the limitations of the recording process.  The Prelude and Fugue BWV 846 is included with Busoni's records - I was rather fond of the general ebb and flow of his playing in the Fugue and carried some of that over, but was not influenced by his interpretation of the Prelude.  There is much more documented about Busoni than what is in the various biographies, for instance the contents of reams of Musical Courier articles, including a fascinating interview with his wife, seem to be only very lightly sourced.  As with Liszt, there probably is much in the way of letters and other materials that are unpublished and even as of yet unknown.

Name hyphenation is a possible solution to the presentation, and for performing music I did on one occasion, in 1999 at a Bach festival, hyphenate the composer's name for all the performed music as "Bach-Sayers".

for liszt1022: Getting back to the start of this post, the Invention was performed once in 1999 and various times in 2000-2001, and then again in 2003.  There isn't a recording of me playing it later than the one from 2003, so it is the latest I have to work with right now for uploading to YouTube.  The December 13, 2003, recital was the only time I performed the Prelude and Fugue BWV 846.

[diomedes]

I'm more concerned with context. If i play something i think about the context and what the result is. In that context playing something that slow and Bach no less is likely too much for the audience. It appears like it is largely young people and their parents. I'd play a Scarlatti Sonata or some Debussy perhaps a Rachmaninov prelude that's engaging, they'd in part be able to walk away from the experience with something other than wandering thoughts. Consider the audience and what's the intended purpose, otherwise all you're doing is playing for yourself and that can be done at home. That's what it looks like, but I know nothing.

As for the general approach to the playing, it is what it is. Again I'm more concerned about the intended purpose, and i don't know enough about the situation.

[michael_sayers]

Hi Diomedes,

I played Leschetizky's Intermezzo in Octaves during that December 2003 recital which seemed a good contrast to all the musical weightiness.  It was one of my favourites back then either as an encore or in with the main programme.

[stevensk]

I love unconvential interpretations, but this was something very "special".
However, Its from December 2003? -You were very young at that time. Thats a good excuse  

[perprocrastinate]