Bach: Das wohltemperierte Klavier I

My top WTC ever!!!!:
This is, in my opinion, the best recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier I have ever heard, beating out such greats as Glenn Gould and Edwin Fischer. The preludes were played with breathtaking finesse, imagination, and an amazing control that, paradoxically, only heightened the excitement of these pieces. One sensed incredible strength and energy held in reserve - but just barely. Anyone who thinks that Bach is "boring" must listen to this performance! If the preludes were incredible, the fugues were more so. Till Fellner's ability to bring out not just one voice, but two or three *at once*, is not to be believed until you hear it. Even Gould and Fischer, my favorite Bach pianists, did not often demonstrate this extent of multi-layered complexity in their playing of counterpoint. The incredible intellect and imagination that I could sense behind the playing boggled my mind. In short, this recording passed my litmus test for greatness - it grabbed my attention right from the start and WOULD NOT let it go. Keep up the great work Till Fellner! I'd give this one six stars if I could.

The one to buy if you dislike Gould's style:
The visual I get from Gould's playing is that of a man changing into a werewolf while playing a piano that is on fire and plummeting down the side of a mountain. I'm eternally thankful for Gould bringing Bach keyboard pieces into the mainstream repertoire, but I distinctly dislike his style. Fellner's rendition is everything Gould's is not: thoughtful, measured, fluidic. The ECM recordings are well-produced and offer clarity to match the quality of performance. I like Richter's version of WTC, but I think Fellner's lends the gravity due to a Bach piece. I sincerely hope that Fellner will go on to record WTC II, Goldberg Variations, and the English, Italian, and French Suites.

Why did nonesuch discontinue Aldwell!!!:
Fellner is not a bad musician and this is not a bad recording...then why would I give it only 2 stars??? Because Nonesuch has in its possession the greatest recording of the WTC Book 1 and instead of keeping in print, they decided to record and release this disc. I am speaking of the recording of the WTC Book 1 by Edward Aldwell. If you haven't heard him, then you are missing the greatest WTC on the piano. Forget Gould...Aldwell has superior insights/performance/production. Fellner has no knew insights here. His approach to Bach is proto-romantic and if that is how you like your Bach then I suggest you listen to Schiff (London) or Hewitt (Hyperion). Both are supurb and superior to Fellner. I don't want to be too down on Fellner, but he has some enormous shoes to fill here. With Tureck, Gulda, Schiff, Hewitt, and my absolute favorite Edward Aldwell coming before him.

My new favorite:
This is now my favorite recording of the WTC. Sensitive, intelligent, clear, much nuance, brilliant. Nice use of what my teacher called a Bach pedal. I wish Fellner would record the second book, and everything else.

Not Satisfying:
If any keyboard compositions should sound plausible on the modern grand pianoforte, it would be the preludes and fugues of 'das wohltemperierte Clavier', in which Bach set out to explore the possibilities of equal temperament tuning in place of the mean tuning that had been in use in Europe for centuries. Equal temperament was certainly a prerequisite for the development of the modern piano. The music Bach composed for his well-tempered clavier was stylistically and structurally still the same sort of music Bach had been composing all his life -- music written to exploit the timbre and touch of the harpsichord. I got this recording with at least a tentatively open mind. I detest the old Gould recording, but I felt an urge to give a newer pianist a hearing. Well, historical issues aside, I don't enjoy the results. The dusky pedal-slippery resonance of the piano just doesn't pinpoint Bach's contrapuntal conceptions. It all sounds like mathematical Chopin to me. Sorry, fans. I'm not impressed. The only really excellent recording of the 48 preludes and fugues available these days is by harpsichordist Leon Berben, who often performs with Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Coelln. Gustav Leonhardt recorded the whole opus decades ago, but his CDs are out of stock. Even the Berben performances are available only as part of the Brilliant Classics Bach Edition, a box of 155 CDs that would fill your musical days for years to come. In that collection, the works for solo harpsichord and for organ are univerally superb.