Here's a little something I recorded today...

http://www.box.net/shared/q0sluusfma

More coming soon...

Hey,

Very nice! I thought you played this very clearly and articulated, just as it should be in other words. The quality of the recording itself was nice as well. There was one thing that got to me throughout the piece though. You seemed to play with too much rubato. And of course with Baroque, any rubato is too much. Overall though I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

-Robert

Very nice! I thought you played this very clearly and articulated, just as it should be in other words. The quality of the recording itself was nice as well. There was one thing that got to me throughout the piece though. You seemed to play with too much rubato. And of course with Baroque, any rubato is too much. Overall though I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

-Robert

Very nice! I thought you played this very clearly and articulated, just as it should be in other words. The quality of the recording itself was nice as well. There was one thing that got to me throughout the piece though. You seemed to play with too much rubato. And of course with Baroque, any rubato is too much. Overall though I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

-Robert

Oops. Sorry about the multi post...could a mod please delete 2 of them.

Thanks for the comments. I wouldn't say that ANY rubato is too muc -- after all, we are playing on a piano and not a harpsichord. But I hear where you're coming from. I was surprised with how the quality came out. I'm using a pretty low-key Sony condenser microphone, but after a little tweaking it came out pretty nice.

Beautifully played. That is one of my favorite Bach, Prelude and Fugue. I am not a purist, so I like the Rubato. My teacher is always correcting me for too much Rubato, and also legato, when I play Bach. He wants a more precise, crisp playing.Of course he is correct, and I am struggling to remember that Bach is not Chopin.
Your playing was very clean, and everything was clearly articulated. Gaby Tu

I liked this sensitive approach to Bach (in the Prelude) very much. I think we can sometimes be too "clinical" in eschewing rubato in some Baroque music. Wasn't it J.S.Bach who, in his treatise on keyboard playing, admonished us, above all, to play with taste? I thought that the Prelude was played with great taste, and the rubato made it live and breathe in a way that a purely metronomic approach would not have done.

Both the Prelude and Fugue were played with appropriate clarity. I noticed, somewhere around measures 22-25 that the subject was played with a mordent when it occured in the RH but not so ornamented in the LH. This reminds of me what Tovey says about the trill in the principal subject when it first appears (ABRSM edition, p 114)"This trill given by Bach during the Exposition can, of course, be supplied wherever playable." Perhaps you felt that the mordent wasn't "playable" in the LH in these particular measures.

In any case, I find this exemplary playing; I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you.

Regards,

Hello ASBpiano

this Bach is soulful and tasteful. I particularly enjoyed the fugue so much I downloaded it so I can listen to it once in a while.

There could be a little more simplicity in the interpretation of the prelude and it could be made a little less "romantic", but you do nothing outrageous to it, just your understanding and feeling of it shows... Soulful.

Bravo

Claude

Thank you all for the wonderful comments. I've really enjoyed studying this prelude and fugue. I couldn't agree more with all of your sentiments on rubato with regards to Bach interpretation. I try very hard to keep my playing within period boundaries but I've always felt that so called "purist" arguments can get a bit hypocritical given that we're playing on such a different instrument from Bach's. I feel that moderated and logical use of rubato is often essential to get dynamic ideas across. Thanks again for the comments -- I'll try to get some more recordings up here sometime.

-Ari

It somewhat bemuses me when people suggest that the music of Bach should be played with absolute strictness and with limited expressiveness. I admit to certain Baroque performance practices, but I find it hard to believe that Bach was a man without emotion and without passion. That those elements should be removed from his music for the sake of Baroque "purity" seems somewhat counterproductive to me.

Regards,

Hello asbpiano

I enjoy your playing. It is lovely.
Music is music, never mind the "purity".
Music speak for itself.

Regards.

Paulpaulpiano