Search - J.S. Bach :: Italian Concerto

Best Bach CD on the planet

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 02/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is labeled incorrectly by Amazon. Dubravka Tomsic plays the Italian Concerto, Partita No. 1 and Toccata, Adagio and Fugue. Gunther Kehr leads the orchestra in the orchestral suite.



With the addition of the Suite No. 4 -- I own this CD on the Stradivari Classics label when it only contained the piano music -- this CD must now surely rank as the best Bach buy on this planet at only $4.98.



For those that have never heard Tomsic play (or heard of her at all) she was a student of Artur Rubinstein and owns much of his sensitivity and virtuosity. She is not well represented on CD and often does not perform at her best in recordings. She is more well-known for her concerts.



This is not only her best CD, it is one of the best Bach CDs ever made. I have owned every version of the Partita No. 1 now published and hers is by best by far. Her sensitivity to the music, combined with faultless technique and appropriate ornamentation, is simply unbelieveable. No other Bach player alive today matches this playing, which is just as supeb in the Italian Concerto and Toccata, Adagio & Fugue (also mislabled on the CD and by Amazon).



What separates Tomsic from other players is most apparent on this CD in her exposition of the Partita's 7-minute Sarabande, which is the heart of the music. Note how she begins the opening phrase with repose...then rises its emotional altitude...then plays it more lovingly, more elegantly, after the repeat.



Tomsic knows this is Bach's voice, his method of communication. She understands Bach's world is more than mathematical perfection in notes and an understanding of Lutheran doctrine. It thirsts to make contact with humankind through these dance forms (he bore more than 20 children, after all!).



Bigger name pianists like Richard Goode and Piotr Anderszewski, who both recorded the first Partita to much acclaim last year, don't have the foggiest idea what Bach meant or wanted. They attend to the notes and the elemental rightness of the score, but lack an understanding of Bach the man and how he projected himself in his music.



Tomsic's version of the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue is also easily the best version available on CD. It not only is perfectly played, it has an inevitability that shatters the imagination, especially during the rising quarters of the toccata and the apocalypitic octaves that conclude the fugue.



The only quibble a person could have with this CD is the close recording, which can put the listener essentially at the keyboard. Yet that provides a vividness unusual in recordings today while bathing the listener in the glorious deep tone Tomsic creates.



With palying of this stature and the additional gift of Kehr's orchestral suite, buying this CD will be the best $5 you spend this or any other year."