# Comparing Bach recordings



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Maybe this can make up an interesting thread...Comparing different recordings of Bach on keyboard. I do this sometimes when I want to learn a piece and now I have the crazy idea to learn partita no. 4 on guitar (has been done before). I know I should sit patiently down with my guitar and practice for a year, but it's also interesting to hear how others do it. My go to version will probably not be too bouncy and wildly ornamented and probably among the slower versions around. Victoria Dondysh seems nice of "unheard of" pianists...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

I'll jump in with the _Well-Tempered Clavier_. I love Schiff's two recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier. He brings life to the music, is really skilled with his use of articulation (not over-the-top either like Gould) and is just a joy to listen to. I listen to Gould occasionally but while I certainly find him interesting, I don't really _like_ how he plays Bach. Sviatoslav Richter's studio Well-Tempered Clavier is fascinating: it's like having a staring contest with Bach. Slow throughout, but with _utmost_ concentration. Edwin Fischer should be mentioned in any discussion of piano recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier for setting the standards for everyone else in the '30s. I have Gieseking's mono recording but haven't listened to too much of it. Hewitt is too romantic for my tastes, but to each their own.

On harpsichord, my favorite is probably Helmut Walcha's Archiv recording on period instruments (the EMI recording is all right, too, but the Ammer instrument is clunkier). Gustav Leonhardt is another important recording. Ralph Kirkpatrick, also known for cataloguing all of Scarlatti's sonatas, recorded it twice; once for Archiv on clavichord and once for Deutsche Grammophon on harpsichord. I haven't ever heard any of the harpsichord recording but I would LOVE to. The clavichord has the advantage, like the piano, of being able to play notes at different dynamic levels. Scott Ross's recording is vivacious and muscular. Kenneth Gilbert's recording is good from what I remember, and I loved the sound of his instrument. I also loved Trevor Pinnock's brand-new recording of each book, which has a warm enough sound that I was able to listen to both books with headphones in one day (4+ hours of harpsichord!).


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## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

It took a while to find a recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier on harpsichord I could "live with".
I settled on this one, by Steven Devine;








J.S. Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier), Volume 2


A new music service with official albums, singles, videos, remixes, live performances and more for Android, iOS and desktop. It's all here.




music.youtube.com


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Cedrik Tiberghien sounds pretty good on piano. I often get the impression that cembalists play too fast...Glenn Gould is of course an icon, but probably far away from a guitar friendly way of playing.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)




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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Here’s Simon Steen Andersen playing a Bach transcription for guitar. I would like @Kjetil Heggelund to take some inspiration from it, play BWV 828 in the same style, and let us all see a video.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I will sound like Kaare Norge I hope, pretty traditional and straight forward, not backwards... 🤘


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I will sound like Kaare Norge I hope, pretty traditional and straight forward, not backwards... 🤘


Despite the name Norge he is Danish.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Mandryka said:


> Here’s Simon Steen Andersen playing a Bach transcription for guitar. I would like @Kjetil Heggelund to take some inspiration from it, play BWV 828 in the same style, and let us all see a video.


It's pretty impressive actually


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## SoloYH (8 mo ago)

I like recorings where they take his work and transform it in their own way. Either a personal spin or genre transformation, for example. Don't like boring standard uninspiring ones.

Some of favorites, definitely Gould's concerto recordings, and French Overture.

BWV 903, Richter for more technical, and Brendel for the romanticiszed version.

Daniil Trifonov, although Liszt-Bach, the G minor Fantasy Fugue.

Tatiyana(spelling?) has some recordings I find so dear. G minor little Fugue comes to mind.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

SoloYH said:


> I like recorings where they take his work and transform it in their own way. Either a personal spin or genre transformation, for example. Don't like boring standard uninspiring ones.
> .


What do you make of this?


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

I just got back from vacation, and while I was visiting mom and dad I worked on the e minor lute suite. this is how I went about it....

I started with the gigue. Best to work back to front if you are going to perform it. I read through slowly. Then I take out the tricky bits and work out the fingering exactly. That gigue was such a bear that after taking out teh tricky bits there wasn't much left. this went on all day

next day I did the same with the Courant.

then the following day, the presto section of the prelude

the fourth day, thinking the Allemande would be pretty smooth going, I started in....by measure 3 I realized I was in trouble and started breaking out the tricky bits.

The Sarabande is actually easy and the bouree is in alot of anthologies and I've played it since I was a teenager, so this went quick. After 4 days I was ready to start memorizing

so the basic method is always the same: read through slowly and carefully, break out the tough bits, put it back together and play.

to me Bach is all about the long idea. That's why I always preferred Julian Bream's recordings of Bach suites.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Comparing different recordings of Bach on keyboard


Does organ count as keyboard? I would say so even though there are major differences in timbre, touch, scale, and the music itself between organ and the other keyboard instruments. Here are some of the integral recordings of Bach's organ output with which I have at least some familiarity. There's the pioneering mono cycle on Archiv by Helmut Walcha and the second, stereophonic cycle as well. Like his harpsichord recordings, Walcha is sober, measured, deliberate throughout, and never flashy for the sake of it. He has a tendency towards heavier articulation also. Amazing that he did this despite his blindness. Marie-Claire Alain recorded three cycles, the latter on historical instruments. She displayed an evolution in how she played Bach from the first through the third cycle. Michel Chapuis is another Frenchman, a scholar who used historically-informed fingerings, pedalings, articulation, and so forth. I always liked Simon Preston's cycle, with clear registrations and some virtuosic but not over-the-top playing. Peter Hurford's cycle is cut from similar cloth to Preston's, so it's an interesting exercise to see where they differ.


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