Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Mieczyslaw Horszowski :: Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (24 Preludes & Fugues)

Bach as Music

JMB1014 | USA | 07/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For years I have grappled with Bach's WTC, the acknowledged Old Testament dispensation of the classical keyboard. But performances by Gould and Richter, while brilliant, never disclosed to me the profound unity and musicality of these pieces as a set. I found Horszowski several years ago playing Mozart piano quartets with the Budapest Quartet and later on a gorgeous rendition of Bach's second keyboard partita. He brings sublime insight, taste and delicacy to his playing. Whereas Gould is a genius in his own right, he never showed me how these preludes and fugues function as a single beautiful piece of music, as Horszowski does. Gould's sounded more like a set of exercises. Richter, my favorite pianist, plays each prelude and fugue with rare depth and passion: each is its own ballade, etude, tone poem or cantata under his fingers. Again, however, I never perceived how well the 24 function as a whole. Horszowski makes this a piece of exquisite, evocative music. I could not stop playing it. I give it five stars because this artist gives a new perspective to a familiar classic, accomplishing what Aristotle asked of art: that it delight and instruct. Horszowski does this, gracefully, without ostentation."