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Mon, 29 Aug 2005

Bach, Barenboim

J.S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2
Daniel Barenboim
3 CD's, Warners

While Bach says this whole series is for Clavier, which means keyboard rather than a specific keyboard instrument, it is well known that he rather liked the clavichord and so purists might be tempted to not consider a piano rendition just because the piano sound is rather obvious and in some hands rather soulless.

Daniel Barenboim has made a good fist of this though. The combination of touch, the piano itself, and the recording give us delicacy and subtlety. It is a very skilled performance. People who know this work very well (how many of them could there possibly be?) might quibble with some parts of the interpretation. I say this not because I am an expert on interpretations of this work but because Barenboim's stated opinion on interpretation is quite free. (Count K)

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