# A state of wonder...



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Thus the title of Gould's Goldbergs, a set of the 1955s and 1981s. But it better fits, to my mind, the Well-tempered Clavier.

Before Glenn Gould did his set of the entire 48 in the early 1960s, there was only Wanda Landowska on the harpsichord. For the most part, the WTC was considered a set of pieces for teaching, not for popular enjoyment. Gould changed all that. Now each prelude, each fugue, was a miniature tone poem with its own personality, its own rewards.

Today of course the shelves are groaning with complete sets. Andras Schiff has just released his second! Times have changed, and the WTC is a popular (if huge) landmark in music. Jill Crossland's fingers are flying as I type...

What do you think? Is the WTC fit to be balanced, as the old testament, against Beethoven's new? Which are your favorite performances? Why?


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

I understand Book I, from the 1720s, was (partly) a compilation of pieces Bach had written up to that point. The idea to arrange them in a chromatic series of keys only occured to him later on. However, the pieces from Book II, from twenty years later, were composed specifically as a unified whole in the format of 24 preludes and fugues.

I wonder if that's true, I haven't read anything definitive on it.


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## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

If not Bach's WTC, what else can balance Beethoven's sonatas? In my opinion, yes, Bach's WTC is perfection.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Just a reminder that there were a few more complete piano WTCs between Landowska and Gould - Edwin Fischer´s (HMV 1935-36), Gieseking´s (radio only? 1950), Rosalyn Tureck´s mono 1953 for Brunswick, Maurice Cole´s for Saga, and Samuil Feinberg´s glorious 1959 for Melodiya. They were all quite popular, I believe. Galling´s harpsichord for Vox is from 1964.

(cf. http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV846-869-Rec1.htm)

I´ve got Fischer, Tureck 1953, Feinberg, Galling, Gould and Richter, and skipped Robert Riefling´s late stereo recording, which was a bit too literal and bloodless IMO. 
Feinberg, Richter and Gould are definitely those I like the most. My main objection to Gould´s, which has such a wealth of details, is the choice of very dry acoustics.


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

The first book has, maybe, the most impressive fugues (the only two fugues for five voices in the 48, and that incredible last fugue, in B minor, with the twelve semitones in its subject, for instance), but I think the second book is pure awesomeness, from the first bar to the last one.

My favorite performances are:

- Helmut Walcha, because it was the first set of the 48 I bought (vinyl discs)

- Kenneth Gilbert, because he played very well and his harpsichord had a wonderful sound.

- Sviatoslav Richter and Angela Hewitt, both piano performances. I think the piano has a good potential to enhance the understanding of this music, and both Richter and Hewitt achieve it with their great performances.

Please excuse my English. English is not my mother thogue, but I love so much The Well Tempered Clavier than I couldn't help to write my opinion.


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## Sudonim (Feb 28, 2013)

Picander said:


> Please excuse my English. English is not my mother thogue, but I love so much The Well Tempered Clavier than I couldn't help to write my opinion.


No apology necessary - thanks for your well-considered opinion! Believe me, we have many native English speakers who know the language less well than you do.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

I quite like Angela Hewitt's second set. She has a remarkable clarity to her playing.

Nice-sounding piano too.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

"What else can balance Beethovens sonatas"? Well, in my opinion, a steaming cow pie. They both stink


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

drpraetorus said:


> "What else can balance Beethovens sonatas"? Well, in my opinion, a steaming cow pie. They both stink


Speaking of this, the varied sensitivity and the range of rhetorics are indeed among the miracles of the WTC and the sonatas.

Are there any piano cycles of works with identical titles of a similar scope ? Perhaps Scriabin´s 12 sonatas, and maybe-maybe Debussy´s Preludes.

In the future, Sorabji´s 100 Etudes, currently being recorded by Ullén, could possibly be a candidate ...
I think it is a question of getting to know those pieces, including some diverse interpretations.


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

Sudonim said:


> No apology necessary - thanks for your well-considered opinion! Believe me, we have many native English speakers who know the language less well than you do.


That's very kind of you, thanks.

I'm having a good time browsing so many threads in this forum (which I discovered a few days ago), and learning about music. Thanks to all the people who write here


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

joen_cph said:


> Speaking of this, the varied sensitivity and the range of rhetorics are indeed among the miracles of the WTC and the sonatas.
> 
> Are there any piano cycles of works with identical titles of a similar scope ? Perhaps Scriabin´s 12 sonatas, and maybe-maybe Debussy´s Preludes.
> 
> ...


Dmitri Shostakovich wrote "24 Preludes an Fugues", Opus 87

I like this work because I like the musical language of Shostakovich, and also the pieces have a good variety. But I prefer TWC, of course.

The order of the pieces is not the same that in The Well-Tempered Clavier: here the order is the circle of fifths, and each "major" is followed by its relative minor: C major, A minor, G major, E minor, etc.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Yes, that is a nice cycle. Shostakovich recorded some of the pieces too, in a moving version. It would be interesting to know to what degree these pieces reflect contemporary/modern influences in their style.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I much prefer Book II to Book I, the second (as you mention, decades later) are far more supple, much more highly inventive, less rhythmically square, and therefore, entertaining. 

I have yet to find them at all in any way a suitable or workable through listen. For the large through listen keyboard piece by Bach, it is the Goldberg Variations for me.

I think the massive over-emphasis on both Bach and Beethoven, giving each epic and near mythical / religious - ecstatic status, influences far too many and that leads to constructs and attitudes as in this OP, involving pitting one up against the other as if you could put either in the fighting ring to duke it out, or on the scales as two different weights to count, one more than another -- just impossible.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

However there´s nothing wrong in recognizing the level of ambition and invention in those works ... 

Some of the other major piano cycles are of course 
- Scarlatti: 555 Sonatas
- Haydn: 60+ Sonatas
- Clementi: 110 Sonatas. There seems to be a lot to discover there, based on the excerpts I´ve heard. But he didn´t make the stylistic leaps that Beethoven did;
- Schubert: 21 Sonatas. A lot of the early ones aren´t really of much interest, though;
- Liszt´s "Annees de Pelerinage I-III", in some ways epitomizing much of romanticism´s thinking and preferred themes;
- Prokofiev: 9 Sonatas. But they often seem somewhat similar in content to me;
- Nikos Skalkottas: 32 Piano Pieces. Interesting and varied works, partly inspired by the Neue Wiener Schule - there´s a very fine BIS recording.

"Dark horses" could include Chopin´s mazurkas and nocturnes, Grieg´s Lyrical Pieces, Feinberg´s sonatas (but very neo-Scriabinesque), Medtner´s sonatas ...

Niels Viggo Bentzon wrote 13 sets of 24 preludes & Fugues, but a lot of the pieces are very sketchy, the first couple of sets being probably the most interesting. 

Whereas Mendelssohn´s "Lieder ohne Worte", Czerny´s etudes, Field´s Nocturnes, Bartok´s "Mikrokosmos", Albeniz "Iberia", Hindemith´s "Ludus Tonalis" and Cage "Sonatas & Interludes" don´t really qualify to the same level, IMO.

Probably forgot some ...


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