Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
Gould's special interpretation WTC Book 1; Bk 2 even better, March 25, 2000
Glenn Gould's playing prompted the great George Szell to say, "That nut is a genius." Gould is indeed a controversial pianist. While he was responsible for resurgence in interest in Bach (along with Roselyn Tureck and some others), Gould's playing arouses tremendous passion both pro and con. For a while I subscribed to a use-list on Bach; the members argued so much about Gould that the web master had to intervene, and when that did not work she pulled the plug on the entire site. Readers should know that I like Glenn Gould. His are not the only worthy interpretations of Bach, but they are indispensable if one is to get a broad and rounded picture of how this greatest of all composers is to be understood. Gould learned Book One of the WTC from his mother. After he recorded it for Columbia (now Sony) he hardly ever played a selection from Book One again. On the other hand he made numerous recordings of various preludes and fugues from Book Two, both before and after his Columbia complete recording. His interpretations are certainly unique. Comparing him with other great pianists you will find that he takes tempos that are slower or faster than more conventional versions. This drives some listeners crazy. For my taste I tend to prefer more individualistic performances, and therefore like Gould more than Schiff for example. Other worthy interpretations of WTC are of course Edwin Fischer on EMI, Richter on Le Chant du Monde, and Schiff on Decca/London for comparison. Recordings of various individual preludes and fugues by Tureck are nearly always worthwhile. The preludes and fugues of Book Two are a bit darker and more spiritual than those of Book One, and thus suited Gould's temperament more closely. But for beginners I will concede that it takes several listenings to fully get into the WTC, or "forty-eight", as they are also known. Still, like the Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue, they are more than worth the effort.
|
|
|
53 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
Not for Bach beginners--fair enough?, February 6, 2001
Someone who is already familiar with the WTCs, or who loves Glenn Gould, or both, would be the best audience for this performance. From the very first bars, with the flowing ascending theme played partly in a counter-intuitive staccato, the in-the-know listener can tell that this will be a highly idiosyncratic rendering. Sure enough, Gould willfully takes some pieces at half-speed, presumably to display the "inner structure", while others are played very fast, near the notes-per-second barrier. It may well be true that Gould understood Bach better than any other pianist--his unexpected insights are certainly plentiful enough, however convincing they may or may not be. And Bach seems never to have been very specific about how he wanted his music played. However, a newcomer to this work would do well to begin with a more conventional reading. In the wrong hands the WTC's can be as dull as someone reciting the multiplication tables. Yet Gould's version, though faultless in execution and brimming with ideas, is just too distinctive, shall we say, to recommend as this work's bible performance.
|
|
|
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Bach Would Have Approved!, July 24, 2000
Classical music is interpretation: Modern-day performers and conductors put their unique stamp on music that was written long ago in a very different world. The only real question is, does the interpretation remain faithful to what we believe to be the spirit of the original work, or does it go beyond, into something else altogether? In some cases (Beethoven piano concerti come to mind), much is to be gained by strict adherence to "period" styles and instruments. In other instances, however, certain music lends itself to revitalization...the WTC is a perfect example. This was music written to demonstrate advances in music notation; in other words, it was the eighteenth-century equivalent of today's hi-fi "demonstration disc", it existed to serve a technical purpose. It's hard to imagine that Bach would have considered WTC to be inviolate, although he certainly must have felt that way about much of his other work. That notwithstanding, a surpassing genius such as Bach deserves special consideration, regardless of his original intent for the music. However, we must also remember that the idea of preserving period sounds is a twentieth-century phenomenon; eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers were used to their music being radically modified from performance to performance. I believe that if Bach could survive the shock of playing as individualistic and emotional as Gould's, he'd be delighted by the new angles uncovered by this strikingly original, if not shocking interpretation. Yes, Gould "sings along". Yes, he takes liberties with tempos, articulation, etc. But in the end, his reading of WTC is fresh, original, and uniquely his own, without denying the unapproachable perfection already put there by Bach himself. Bach would have approved, and Gould's reading has stood the test of time. No one says that this needs to be the "definitive" WTC, but it is a triumph in its own right. Like Bach, Glenn Gould was a true original.
|
Share your thoughts with other customers: 
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
(51)
$14.97
(10)
$8.97
(5)
$11.98
See all 42 customer reviews...
