I’ve interrupted my Yukio Mishima binge for good reason. Steeped as I am in the Well-Tempered Clavier, I’ve come to know some of essential contemporary texts on Bach’s process, his reaction and interaction with the cultural trends of his time, and specific analysis devoted to the WTC. Laurence Dreyfus’ excellent Bach And The Patterns Of …
This Prelude enlists another one of the known techniques of the time, making a blooming sound out of a completely natural, colloquial position of the hand. The parallel voices I seek to subvert, instead of following their inexorable tandem procession, I highlight 3-note melodic cells, through articulative transparency and dynamic shading, first in the upper …
Maybe my favorite of all the cantabile Preludes; reminds me of the Minore Variation #25 in the Goldberg Variations. The multivarious subjects of the Fugue run from the stentorian rhetorical to the motive, emblematic to the fluid and accumulative semi-quavers. And those new Steinway hammers are coming in nicely, I think. All my video performances …
Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier is distinguished by Bach’s ever-evolving experiments, alchemical meldings of genres, styles, forms and formats. The F# Major Prelude, with its martially-dotted thorough-going texture suggests a French Overture, but in performance one finds instead this most stringently regulated yet most opulently resounding two-voice texture. The Fugue begins on the trilled …
Immersed as I am, recording and expostulating upon The Well-Tempered Clavier, it’s immensely invigorating engaging learned minds on my own journey. Of particular note, for historical, analytical and philosophical context is David Ledbetter’s indispensable study of The 48. We tend to think of The 48 as a sui generis demo for the latest 2.0 of …
Our friend, Ruth, sent this here to the website: copy of comment to NPR re. FROM THE TOP:For a number of years, we have so looked forward to listening to From the Top, with Christopher O’Riley as the host par excellence. He was well-prepared, interactive, sensitive, and seemed to have a natural ability to …