Bach - WTC (Complete)

[andhow04]

all '48'

the recording was done on a junky device, called tunetalk, that plugged into an ipod. just pretend it's antique.

book I:

book II:

these were recorded over the course of a year on an excellent steinway D, but it wasn't always in the best tune. occasionally you can hear ambient noise too, like the radiators coming on, or a bus driving by, or whatnot.

enjoy!

[furiouzpianist]

what a monster post! wow.........

I have to work through this stuff slowly, you are already a legend for learning the whole WTC!

[georgey]

I spent the last 10 minutes listening to about 40 samples of 5 to 30 seconds each for BOOK 1.  I am listening to PF in D major as I type.  I listened to my 2 favorite preludes: D major and B flat major in its entirety.  

You appear to be a WTC MASTER (maybe of masters)!  You need to make CD of the complete 48.  Let me know when it is ready. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Question:  The a minor fugue sounded great for the 30 seconds I heard!  Do you consider this to one of the hardest to play in the set?

Question: Are my ear buds going bad?  The left bud did not play for several of the small excerpts that I heard.  Ex: the 2 voice e minor fugue.

PS: still listening as I type.  WTC 1 e-flat major prelude (a gem of gems) sounds great!!

[andhow04]

I spent the last 10 minutes listening to about 40 samples of 5 to 30 seconds each for BOOK 1.  I am listening to PF in D major as I type.  I listened to my 2 favorite preludes: D major and B flat major in its entirety.  

You appear to be a WTC MASTER (maybe of masters)!  You need to make CD of the complete 48.  Let me know when it is ready. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Question:  The a minor fugue sounded great for the 30 seconds I heard!  Do you consider this to one of the hardest to play in the set?

Question: Are my ear buds going bad?  The left bud did not play for several of the small excerpts that I heard.  Ex: the 2 voice e minor fugue.

PS: still listening as I type.  WTC 1 e-flat major prelude (a gem of gems) sounds great!!

thanks for listening
one of these days i will make a real recording. who knows when, where or how

i dropped the tunetalk microphone one too many times, and sometimes i guess the left channel gave out. i hope it doesn't happen too much

#20, a minor, book I is very hard for sure, it's very complex and long. physically i play most of it with the arm, as if it was a rachmaninoff etude, and just let the counterpoint take care of itself. its more physical than most

b-flat minor book II is very hard for me, and A major fugue book I is hard in the eighth note sections, to really get the rhythm to be alive. c# minor book II is quite hard

[georgey]

thanks for listening
one of these days i will make a real recording. who knows when, where or how

i dropped the tunetalk microphone one too many times, and sometimes i guess the left channel gave out. i hope it doesn't happen too much

#20, a minor, book I is very hard for sure, it's very complex and long. physically i play most of it with the arm, as if it was a rachmaninoff etude, and just let the counterpoint take care of itself. its more physical than most

b-flat minor book II is very hard for me, and A major fugue book I is hard in the eighth note sections, to really get the rhythm to be alive. c# minor book II is quite hard

Thanks for commenting on the difficulty of the fugues.  As a non-player, I always wonder about this.  In the next week or so, I look forward to listening to both sets completely with my Henle Urtext scores in hand.  I'll comment again at that time.

[georgey]

Just finished listening to book 1 in 1 sitting.  Absolutely gorgeous!!!!!!  Such a fine understanding of Bach!  Fugues performed perhaps as great as anyone in history!  You are a true WTC book 1 master!  No Picardy 3rd at end of d minor prelude?  Let me know when your CD of book 1 is ready.  Now on to book 2 later today.

[georgey]

Book 2 – OMG as gorgeous as the first.

I herby declare you as THE WTC KING OF PLANET EARTH FOR 2018!!!!!!!!!!!!

FANTASTIC BACH SOUND to my ear for each of the 48.  No repeat 2nd half of the magnificent D major prelude of book 2?   P&F #16 & 17 book 2 – doesn’t get any better than this.  Also Fugue 22 book 2- I could go on and on.

Somewhere you will be recognized for this great achievement by someone in power.  Again: CONGRATULATIONS!!

[andhow04]

Book 2 – OMG as gorgeous as the first.

I herby declare you as THE WTC KING OF PLANET EARTH FOR 2018!!!!!!!!!!!!

FANTASTIC BACH SOUND to my ear for each of the 48.  No repeat 2nd half of the magnificent D major prelude of book 2?   P&F #16 & 17 book 2 – doesn’t get any better than this.  Also Fugue 22 book 2- I could go on and on.

Somewhere you will be recognized for this great achievement by someone in power.  Again: CONGRATULATIONS!!

wow thanks for listening to whole thing and glad you liked it. lol ! no i did not do the repeat of D major second half, for some reason, but now i guess i would do it differently. g minor book II is of course one of my favorites, and one of the best concert pieces of all 48.

[johnlewisgrant]

Just finishing your Bk 1 as I write. 

This account of Bk 1 would, I think, sit comfortably in the very top ranks of now 60+ recordings of WTK 1 (on piano) available on CD or via streaming.

I'm not talking about the engineering of the recording, obviously, but the "musicality" of it.

What puts it at the very top (up there with Richter, Feinberg, Barenboim, Schepkin, et. al.) is basically a God-given ability to get across the landscape of each P & F.  Anyone can marvel at the technical finesse of Hewitt, Schiff, Koroliov, and the rest of that heavily marketed crew of bach "specialists."   But, to be brutally frank, who among them sees the architecture of any one of the preludes and fugues?  Occasionally there is a lucky strike.  Certainly, Schiff's interpretations of many of the preludes and fugues at the tail end of Bk 2 seem to hit the mark.  But, truthfully, one has to look to Richter in Bk 1 and to Feinberg and (I know this is disputed) to Barenboim in Bk 2, to "see the whole picture." 

All music interpretation and criticism, in my books, is subjective in the end.  But I'll say it anyway: in Bach, if you can't convey the whole picture, or what I call the "landscape" of the piece, what happens is that a necessary condition of pulling off the music is simply gone.  It's absent.  A huge chunk of the music is MIA.  The music is so rich that we can, in any event, enjoy other aspects, which is why Schiff et. al. are in business.  But until we hear interpretations like, well, THIS ONE, the listener is getting only half the story.


Just starting Bk 2.   Just wonderful stuff here.  To mention only a few points, in no particular order: I LOVE the simplicity of the ornamentation in the glorious C#-minor Prelude!  The famously sight-readable but impossible-to-play A minor prelude is taken VERY slowly, but that enormous risk (at least, I think it is) pays off in spades.  The very difficult stretti in the D Major fugue: scary stuff, daunting, and I hear everything!  Magisterial.  The much-played (and on most Conservatory syllabi) gorgeous E Major prelude: this prelude sounds best when played slowly; the proof is in this perfect performance.   My only regret is that you didn't give us the repeats!!  Because I could listen to this interpretation many times over.   The E Major fugue is a stunning Gouldian performance.  The 3 part E minor Fugue, builds inexorably and beautifully to its resolute conclusion.  A change in mood, as the piece progresses, becoming more and more sinister as we approach the conclusion.  This interpretation is just, what can I say, WONDERFUL.  The F Major Prelude, which is a masterpiece in its own right, here given a totally new interpretation.  And it's the RIGHT interpretation.  It makes more sense to me than all the recorded interpretations I've ever heard.  The accompanying fugue.  Perfect.  The F Minor Fugue: Relentless, almost anxious, with a very gutsy approach to the last two bars! Perfectly executed.  One of the greats (IMO) the F# Minor Fugue, played here with ALL the voices heard, and it keeps us on the edge of our seats until the very end.  Few, very few, pianists can pull this off.  Ditto, Ditto, Ditto for all the rest, especially the difficult (and profound) G minor Fugue (Bk 2). 

Just one discovery after another.  Fantastic: all the difficult preludes and fugues from the difficult (and not much listened to) Bk 2.

One more time: Fantastic.  The whole thing: bks 1 and 2.


(OK... so I do have a tiny quibble/correction.  Measure 20, second beat, bass voice of the D# Minor Fugue!!!!  You play F#.  Pretty sure that should be an F DOUBLE sharp, in keeping with the F double sharp, last note of the bass voice in the preceding bar!!

The G major Prelude/Fugue combo (an old saw on many conservatory exams) has a strikingly different ambient quality from many of the other p&f here.  Being a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, I'd like to hear it in the same ambient "churchy" environment as all the other wonderful performances you given the world!

The location markers at YT for P&F 9-24 Bk 2 seem to be missing.  Not a big deal, but nice to have!)

[adodd81802]

I wish I had an appreciation for Bach, because these recordings have had nothing but praise.

[andhow04]

thanks so much for listening to all of this ! i am very humbled. i wish i had been able to have a better sound quality, but i just work with what i have. hopefully sometime in the future.

obviously you have a great ear, you mentioned a lot of detail that was important to me as well. going from the end of your post, the G major Book II, yes it is a different sound quality, in fact that was the first one I recorded, and didn't have the technique down, and had to do some editing to the sound to clean it up. these were recorded in the order of Bartók's edition, G major being first, and B major book II being the last if I recall.  i did it that way so i never knew which one was coming next, and didn't have to look at all 48 like some endless landscape. now i never use his edition, but at least i can go to anyone any time and practice it.

so going backwards still, the F# in the bass of the D# minor fugue: i checked Bartók's edition and that
is what he has, it's what I learned! so i will have to correct that. in fact there are a few instances of suspect accidentals, that i would do differently now.

E major: yes, now i would do the repeats. not sure why i left those out, because i love this prelude and the voice leading, it's like a gorgeous organ chorale prelude. the Fugue seemed hard to learn at first, then i got really into it, and i think i could show someone in fact how to learn it. E major and e minor book II are an excellent concert companion.

thank you for singling out F major prelude, actually, i think F major Book II is my favorite of all 48. that kind of rich harmonic writing, with all the shading of an impressionistic composer, you can only get from Bach. the fugue now i would play a little slower, to hear all the 32nd notes, but it can be exciting either way.

regarding the other pianists you mention, i myself was never a big fan of schiff's WTC, i somehow felt the rubati were distracting and not to the point. i used to like edwin fischer, but now find some of his dynamics to be pretty arbitrary. i didn't like Richter at first, comparing him unfavorably to the spritely quality of Gould, but now i appreciate it a lot more, and have considered that sometimes he plays Bach in the Shostakovich style - which i like. for instance e minor Book II. honestly Landowska is probably my favorite for WTC.

anyways, a lot of these are first drafts, but i tried to go deep into each one as a statement. i continue to work on them every day and hopefully i can someday put out a real recording.

thanks again so much for listening

Just finishing your Bk 1 as I write. 

This account of Bk 1 would, I think, sit comfortably in the very top ranks of now 60+ recordings of WTK 1 (on piano) available on CD or via streaming.

I'm not talking about the engineering of the recording, obviously, but the "musicality" of it.

What puts it at the very top (up there with Richter, Feinberg, Barenboim, Schepkin, et. al.) is basically a God-given ability to get across the landscape of each P & F.  Anyone can marvel at the technical finesse of Hewitt, Schiff, Koroliov, and the rest of that heavily marketed crew of bach "specialists."   But, to be brutally frank, who among them sees the architecture of any one of the preludes and fugues?  Occasionally there is a lucky strike.  Certainly, Schiff's interpretations of many of the preludes and fugues at the tail end of Bk 2 seem to hit the mark.  But, truthfully, one has to look to Richter in Bk 1 and to Feinberg and (I know this is disputed) to Barenboim in Bk 2, to "see the whole picture." 

All music interpretation and criticism, in my books, is subjective in the end.  But I'll say it anyway: in Bach, if you can't convey the whole picture, or what I call the "landscape" of the piece, what happens is that a necessary condition of pulling off the music is simply gone.  It's absent.  A huge chunk of the music is MIA.  The music is so rich that we can, in any event, enjoy other aspects, which is why Schiff et. al. are in business.  But until we hear interpretations like, well, THIS ONE, the listener is getting only half the story.


Just starting Bk 2.   Just wonderful stuff here.  To mention only a few points, in no particular order: I LOVE the simplicity of the ornamentation in the glorious C#-minor Prelude!  The famously sight-readable but impossible-to-play A minor prelude is taken VERY slowly, but that enormous risk (at least, I think it is) pays off in spades.  The very difficult stretti in the D Major fugue: scary stuff, daunting, and I hear everything!  Magisterial.  The much-played (and on most Conservatory syllabi) gorgeous E Major prelude: this prelude sounds best when played slowly; the proof is in this perfect performance.   My only regret is that you didn't give us the repeats!!  Because I could listen to this interpretation many times over.   The E Major fugue is a stunning Gouldian performance.  The 3 part E minor Fugue, builds inexorably and beautifully to its resolute conclusion.  A change in mood, as the piece progresses, becoming more and more sinister as we approach the conclusion.  This interpretation is just, what can I say, WONDERFUL.  The F Major Prelude, which is a masterpiece in its own right, here given a totally new interpretation.  And it's the RIGHT interpretation.  It makes more sense to me than all the recorded interpretations I've ever heard.  The accompanying fugue.  Perfect.  The F Minor Fugue: Relentless, almost anxious, with a very gutsy approach to the last two bars! Perfectly executed.  One of the greats (IMO) the F# Minor Fugue, played here with ALL the voices heard, and it keeps us on the edge of our seats until the very end.  Few, very few, pianists can pull this off.  Ditto, Ditto, Ditto for all the rest, especially the difficult (and profound) G minor Fugue (Bk 2). 

Just one discovery after another.  Fantastic: all the difficult preludes and fugues from the difficult (and not much listened to) Bk 2.

One more time: Fantastic.  The whole thing: bks 1 and 2.


(OK... so I do have a tiny quibble/correction.  Measure 20, second beat, bass voice of the D# Minor Fugue!!!!  You play F#.  Pretty sure that should be an F DOUBLE sharp, in keeping with the F double sharp, last note of the bass voice in the preceding bar!!

The G major Prelude/Fugue combo (an old saw on many conservatory exams) has a strikingly different ambient quality from many of the other p&f here.  Being a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, I'd like to hear it in the same ambient "churchy" environment as all the other wonderful performances you given the world!

The location markers at YT for P&F 9-24 Bk 2 seem to be missing.  Not a big deal, but nice to have!)