Search - Hélène Grimaud :: Bach - Keyboard Concerto And Piano Solo Pieces [Limited Edition]

The Not-So-Special-Edition

William Cuthbertson | 02/10/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"A sticker affixed to the paperboard case of Helene Grimaud's Bach album labels this as a "deluxe limited edition," but there is nothing particularly deluxe about it.



The packaging is a quad-fold paperboard case, which is done well, with a pouch in one panel for the CD booklet. That is all that it takes to call this "deluxe" apparently.



Of special note: this is a 16-track CD. Track 17, ("17. Prelude in C sharp major BWV 872") as listed here on Amazon -- for both editions, actually -- does not exist here.



Apparently Amazon has used the track list to a more exclusive digital-only edition (not the one they themselves offer), as that mysterious 17th track seems to be available only to the iTunes edition. (I dislike iTunes, so this fact kind of irks me.)



None of this speaks to the recording, but these details seem important enough to alert potential customers. Amazon should pay more attention to their product listings."

Will listen to this CD many times again

SantaBBob | 02/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ms. Grimaud's DG recordings are distinguished by their unique programs. This CD is no exception. The CD opens with two Preludes and Fuges from the Well Tempered Clavier before moving on to the Keyboard Concerto in D Minor and then alternating between further excerpts from the Well-Tempered Clavier and romantic transcriptions of Bach's works, including the stunning Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D Minor.



The advantage of such programming is that the listener is constantly refreshed and interested because each section of the CD is so much different and the pieces linger long in the mind after the CD is over. I know of no one else who puts together CDs like this and this leads perhaps the whole to be more than the sum of the parts - not that the parts are bad!



The piano sounds, as portrayed on the cover, to be a full concert grand. I do not feel the music is therefore "intimate"; this is concert hall Bach not salon or living room Bach - but the piano is very warm and full sounding. Though I have heard criticisms of Grimaud's playing as too harsh, this is certainly not the case in this album.



The D Minor Concerto is technically impeccable, the notes clean and distinct. Her playing of the concerto is a celebration of a piece that is not polyphonic but a glorified continuo to a fairly dramatic keyboard concerto. There is no romantic interpretation however - the outer movements maintain a prcise and fast clip. Following along with the score, Grimaud and the Chamber Orchestra remain perfrectly in sync.



The Chaconne is very romantically played, including some accelerandos and pauses that caught me off guard. Parts of the Chaconne are sunnier then I have ever heard. The Chaconne is where Ms. Griamud is at her most individual, and thus perhaps the most memorable part of the CD.



In short, this is a CD I look forward to putting into my player and tour through the many facets of Bach and the other subsequent tributes to him by other composers.



"

A romanticist's Bach

Tim Sandefur | California | 04/07/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a lovely CD of beautiful music that stands up to repeated listens--especially the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, which is fantastic.



This is not "pure" Bach, whatever that term might mean. Bach purism, like that reflected in the comments by "villegem," is not a mark of intellectual superiority. It's a mark of pettiness and pedantism and a desire to flash one's intellectual cufflinks and be admired. But it isn't admirable; it's shallow. Grimaud is a romantic, playing her romantic interpretations of Bach's music. She doesn't pretend to be playing the "pure" thing. And that's an entirely respectable aesthetic choice.



First, there is no such thing as the perfect performance of the ideal Bach; all performances are interpretations, no matter how "faithful" they claim to be to some Platonic form of the original. Even the decision to play Bach on a Steinway grand is itself anachronistic, and therefore an interpretive choice. If you're looking for the "real" Bach, you probably shouldn't be looking to a pianist in the first place. Moreover, given the fact that composers often change the music itself between performances, the notion of resolving on some sort of Authorized Version of this music is silly pseudo-sophistication.



Nor do we know what Bach himself, who could not have imagined the technical and aesthetic changes that would come in the two and a half centuries since his death, would have thought of those innovations. Maybe, if he had been born in 1800, he would have become a wild-eyed Wagnerian mystic. None of us can know. Few artists ever resolve on some Officially Sanctioned version of their work from which any divergence is somehow a betrayal.



Second, even if Bach had done that, it would still be a perfectly legitimate aesthetic choice to disregard such injunctions. There is nothing objectionable in Grimaud putting a romantic spin on Bach. If she finds an element in baroque music that she would like to draw out and express in her own way, then what she produces is her own art, which deserves to be evaluated on its own terms. Shakespeare stole his plotlines from Plutarch and other sources, but we wouldn't dream of criticizing him for not telling the "true" story of how Julius Caesar was killed! If you don't like Shakespeare's Julius Caesar on its own terms, then that is a reasonable position to take, but you can't condemn him for somehow betraying Plutarch or not understanding what Plutarch was trying to do. Likewise, if Grimaud's statement doesn't resonate with you--if you consider romanticism to be "oozing"--then that's fine, and you have a right to dislike the work. But as long as she's competent at the keyboard (which she certainly is, in spades), then there's no basis other than snobbery for criticizing her for not being "true" to Bach, which 1) she does not claim to be, 2) she has no obligation to be, and 3) no person ever actually could be anyway.



So much for "villegem." Now, how well does the product hold up? Very well indeed. There are some minor problems--Grimaud tends to make certain whispering noises while playing that can be a little distracting. Not like Keith Jarrett or anything, but a little annoying at times. And there are some parts of the concerto that get a little dull. They last no more than a minute, though. And, again, the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor (as transcribed by Liszt--again, Grimaud doesn't pretend to be performing some abstract Authoritative Bach) is marvelous. She draws out things in Bach's music that I had not noticed before, and has given me a greater appreciation for his artistry also. And what more can one ask of a concert pianist?"