BaL 25.05.04 - JS Bach: Keyboard partitas, BVW 825–830

[Pulcinella]

3.00 pm
Building a Library

Joanna MacGregor chooses her favourite recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Keyboard Partitas BWV 825-830.

With his six Keyboard Partitas Bach, in his 40s and at the height of his powers, was determined to impress. They are the longest, most complex and technically challenging of Bach’s keyboard suites. And unlike the English and French suites, they are also the only set he published. In these multi-movement, multidimensional works Bach seems to have wanted to best and outdo all the competition and with their unparalleled richness, variety and invention he seems to have achieved just that.

Originally for harpsichord, the Partitas have perhaps more often been recorded on the modern piano and by many of the great pianists of our and previous times.

Link to Presto listing for the complete set:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/42187--bach-j-s-partitas-nos-1-6-bwv825-830/browse

[AuntDaisy]

Thanks Pulcinella - I hadn't realised there were so many!

Trevor Pinnock's harpischord version on Hänssler is the only one I have - so it's an easy choice
I wonder if piano or harpsichord will be chosen... My money's on piano.

[smittims]

Joanna MacGregor has long played Bach on the piano, but I hope she will keep piano and harpsichord recordings apart here. Comparing Glenn Gould and Andreas Staier, for instance, is perhaps futile, since the music sounds so different.

[AuntDaisy]

Joanna MacGregor has long played Bach on the piano, but I hope she will keep piano and harpsichord recordings apart here. Comparing Glenn Gould and Andreas Staier, for instance, is perhaps futile, since the music sounds so different.

On a side note, I loved Richard Egarr's "The Machine that goes Ping", esp. the title.

[Pulcinella]

Only piano versions here: Gould and Hewitt.
I heard Hewitt play number 6 in her recent recital here in York.

Not surprisingly, there is no BBC MM CD rival for the whole set, though three individual partitas (1, 2, and 4) have appeared.

[smittims]

Ah yes, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings...

[MickyD]

I would have said that there have been just as many, if not more, harpsichord versions as piano over the years.

I have always loved the Kenneth Gilbert set on Harmonia Mundi, though I think that has long been deleted. Rousset and Egarr are also favourites of mine.

[AuntDaisy]

Only piano versions here: Gould and Hewitt.
I heard Hewitt play number 6 in her recent recital here in York. ...

Just listening to Angela Hewitt's stunningly beautiful playing via Naxos Music Library (& our local library), 1997 version.
As smittims said, a very different sound to the harpsichord.

(Interesting that it's 124356 for Hewitt 1997 & 2018, 126345 for Pinnock & Rousett - the joys of fitting on CDs).

[gradus]

Shame that Anderszewski only recorded 1, 3 and 6, they are great performances but not likely to appeal to the more austere amongst us.

[Barbirollians]

Shame Lipatti only recorded one - no other performance I have heard even from Rousset has ever come close.

[richardfinegold]

Over the years I have settled into a preference for Piano in Bach. There are lovely Harpsichord recordings, and yes, one can commit ‘abuse’ with the Piano, but the judicious application of pedal can add color and variety, where even the most mellifluous Harpsichord tends to sound monotonous. My favorites are the aforementioned Hewitt and the less well known Sergey Schepkin. The first two sets that I had purchased were Igor Kipnis and Leonhardt on the harpsichord but I haven’t listened to either in years.
I have heard J.M. in late Romantic fare only and would be interested in her take on Bach recordings

[Pulcinella]

Will the issue of repeats feature, I wonder.
I don't know how essential they are considered for the structure of individual movements, and how often they are followed.

[smittims]

Fashions come and go, don't they? I remember in the 1970s there was a time when Bach on the piano was getting rare. Then it swung the the other way for a while. I currently prefer harpsichord except when the performer is exceptional ,e.g. Tureck or Gieseking.

[vinteuil]

... for a long time, Scott Ross was my 'go to' recording here, and I still think he is magnificent. Subsequently Christophe Rousset. I much enjoy Leonhardt, Gilbert, Staier, and Pinnock.
When I'm in the mood for piano transcriptions of these works, Perahia, Levit, Schiff, and of course Gould. I agree with gradus that it's a shame that Anderszewski only did half of them (and Lipatti just the one).
I can't abide Hewitt.
I wonder if they will consider Richard Troeger's recording on clavichord?

.

[Pulcinella]

... for a long time, Scott Ross was my 'go to' recording here, and I still think he is magnificent. Subsequently Christophe Rousset. I much enjoy Leonhardt, Gilbert, Staier, and Pinnock.
When I'm in the mood for piano transcriptions of these works, Perahia, Levit, Schiff, and of course Gould. I agree with gradus that it's a shame that Anderszewski only did half of them (and Lipatti just the one).
I can't abide Hewitt.
I wonder if they will consider Richard Troeger's recording on clavichord?

.

A bit extreme, surely, vints?
Rendition perhaps?
Of the three that have appeared on BBC MM CDs, number 1 is piano (Louis Schwizgebel, 2015), number 2 is piano (Horszowski, 1983 Aldeburgh), and number 4 is harpsichord (Esfahani, 2009). That's my only harpsichord version (though I see he has now recorded all six on Hyperion) and I can't say that I'm one of his admirers, but I'll give it a spin later. Currently listening to Gould.