Schiff is very good, but his Bach puts me to sleep. His Beethoven is quite good and engaging, but something about his timing and dynamics, combined with a little more pedal than I would like, results in a smooshy, reverent style of Bach playing that is a little dull to my senses. In fact, I thought for the longest time that I didn't like Bach's keyboard works because my first Bach recording was played by Schiff. Give me virtuosic, clean, aggressive Bach playing in the style of Gould, Anderszewski, Argerich or Gavrilov any day.

That being said, I'd still pay good money to see Schiff play an all Bach concert in person.

Isn't it amazing how so many are drawn to those who are NOT the greatest with a certain composer? Give the masses a little flash and they are happy. Just sayin'.

I don't know if it is amazing Stores.. I am not so pedantic as to relish contemplating ignorance or lack of sophistication.


I heard Schiff play Goldberg variations live, and have heard Gould play recordings in different decades. Hearing Schiff play was one of the highest points in my LIFE!!! i adored that performance.. the audience ABSOLUTELY still and rivetted to their seats.. the applause at the end.. stifled and restrained yet full of incredible respect. he certainly did not put me to sleep. My senses were alive as they've ever been.

My favorite? why? why should i have a favorite? I kind of like the '55 and '81 Goldbergs by Gould.. it is so intrigueing to me to hear the differences. If i had an unlimited budget I'd have many many recordings by different artists... I'd even pay to hear myself.

anyway.... sorry Mark, to not be talking about the French suites more.

By the way, how did you make this recording? it is so nice to be able to read the score while listening without having to dig it out. thank you.

(your recording is skillful and i don't know if this would be of help, but one thing i suggest to my students, is to take a walk in the tempo of the piece they are studying.. pick a metronome setting and then plod 'playing' the piece in their head as they walk along in perfect tempo. it's difficult to maintain a consistency.)

I think once a performer's musical abilities reach a certain level of professionalism, the discussion becomes about personal preference, not about objective greatness. I'm not claiming Gould et al are "better" than Schiff, whatever that might mean...

+1


BTW, seems like a good moment for this:

Thanks for the comments Apple. I made the recording in Windows Movie Maker. It was on my computer when I bought it, and I've just started playing with it. I dragged and dropped the audio file into the program, and then did "printscreen" when I was viewing the different pages of the (somewhat archaic) score. I took the screencaptures into Microsoft Paint and trimmed away everything extraneous, and then dragged and dropped those score images into WMM. The interface for synchronizing when the next image appears is really easy.

The advice you gave about walking while thinking through music is good. I do this sometimes, but I could probably do it more. It does sound like you may have listened to my original recording, with all of the "push/pull" that people reacted against. If you go a little further down in the conversation, I have another link to box.net with a more "straight" version. I suppose I should replace the audio in my Youtube video with the second version.

Stores, stores, stores! Your comment makes me want to ask if you have gotten anywhere with that list? You know, the "best of the Goldbergs" where you say which variation you like the most by which pianist? I'm sorry for being such a sponge, but that thought really, really intrigues me coming from you, and I would love to study those performances to see what I can learn, even if I have to collect cds through interlibrary loan to do it! Intuitively, I know you have very definite reasons for assigning value to the ones that you would argue are the best--reasons both artistic and intellectual. It would make an incredibly interesting thread! Otherwise, PM me your list! I want to know what you think!

--Andy

that sounds easy ..

really. - thanks for taking the time to do this.. i love reading along and yes I did listen to your original recording i think.

Actually, I like the push-pull of the rhythm, with a little dynamic variation too - incorporate (tastefully) the best of both the harpsichord (rhythm) and the piano.

The Loure, for me, is by far the hardest to make sound like anything!

Nice work.

Great music! I'd be more helpful if I could; I can only wish you good luck in this pursuit.

Thank you guys for your responses. Tmoose, I agree about the Loure. It took me maybe a month's work (with some interspersed breaks), before I could fully engage with the Loure and come up with an interpretation that I thought was satisfying.

I think it took about the same time for the Sarabande. Slow movements in Bach are often hard for me to feel.