i guess playing bach and whether to use pedal is controversial...im not sure if something on this subject may have already been talked about so tell me if thats the case haha...anyway, i do use bach and pedal (not the soft pedal) sortof sparsely but so that clarity is ALWAYS there. i used to have a piano teacher who was totally agains pedalling bach (purist hehe) but i moved to another teacher (whom i really, really admire) and uses pedal/recommends it...making sure that its not blurring the tone, and not distracting/not dominating but helping... hmmm i guess why not use the pedal? i mean, if you say dont use the pedal, why use the modern piano as opposed to virginal/spinnet/clavierachord (nup i cant spell) as in bach's day?
ohhhh someone talk! come on....i thought heaps of people would be wondering about it too (obviously not)..its always such an issue in eisteddfods and exams etc.......................do it!
Seem to have missed this subject. I do not use any pedal along with Bach but not for the reason I am a purist. Rather that I see little use for it. Especially the sustain pedal seem only to blur things together but I do not have anything against listening to a recording with use of pedal and Bach. For example Angela Hewitt use pedal and she does some wonderful interpretations.
I am used to play Bach without sustain pedal too, I dunno why. Sometimes I take the soft pedal, like WTC1 prelude c-major beginning or so. However, for the WTC1 b minor prelude&fugue (what I posted here already but like to rerecord after the piano is tuned again because of some score reading errors) I finally got weak and use now the sustain pedal (literally everyone said to me that it sounds better this way, I still am uncertain about). Otherwise I agree with Robert, it is also not because of puristic reasons in my case, I simply see no necessity to take the pedal.
I have gone to a 'purist phase' where I did not use any pedal either. This was a great learning experience as I used to be a real pedal pusher One should certainly be able to play Bach without pedal, without thinking it sounds dry or ugly, or both. But recently I feel more inclined to add a dash of pedal here and there, sometimes to aid legato (where it's hard to achieve otherwise), and sometimes for reasons of sound quality, like in the WTC I C major and B flat major preludes, which I think sound rather silly without pedal. But one has to very careful and judicous in Bach pedalling, There is nothing worse than over-pedaled Bach. I think it can not be heard much in my recent Bach recordings (at least nobody niggled about it ). I also make grateful use of the sostenuto (middle) pedal to hold the low A during the last bars of the WTC I A minor fugue. THere's no other way to do it. This is the only place I know where Bach writes something that is actually impossible rather than simply damn difficult. I wonder what instrument he had in mind when writing it.
Lucky guy to have a sostenuto pedal, even if it's not needed so much. However from own played pieces, Rach 3/2 and Chopin Prelude No.17 would sound better with sostenuto pedal. Regarding Bach, the slower WTC1 preludes and fugues sound good to me on organ too, I already tried out. Those crazy long notes over 5 bars in WTC1 b minor fugue come out on organ of course much better than on piano. Perhaps Bach had the organ in mind, but I guess more that if someone has exceptional technique one can easily forget that others will have trouble with that damn difficulties.
