Bach, Prelude and Fugue g-sharp-minor, WTC II, BWV 887

Here is a further step to the completion of book 2 of Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach.
That´s a very nice and lyrical pair. I have choosen a middle fast tempo, so that there is a good flow on the one side, but also the possibility to bring out the lyrical and expressive ideas of both, prelude and fugue.
Hope you can enjoy it!


Bach - Prelude and Fugue g-sharp-minor, WTC II, BWV 887 (9:39)



Here is the link to the video with the same audio-track as the mp3-file above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvEJJtEVSyU (BWV 887)

 

Rachfan wrote:

Thank you, David, for this encouraging and stimulating feedback. I´m happy you like my voicing, because that´s indeed a main feature I´m always working on. (And I´m never absolutely satisfied with it, I have to admit.) Yes, that´s an interesting question, if the evenness of touch can be learned or is a gift. I think, it´s a bit of both like most abilities in music. Of course, the habitude of playing Bach-pieces is a good exercise to practise it. For me the touch and the quality of sound is something like a key to the music. It´s important to play with a soulful (an expressive) touch. I´m always trying to put soul and breath in the touch (and I´m not always successful with that). This soul respective this atmosphere of the touch can only be kept by a recording of high technical quality. For me, there is a big difference f.ex. between a recording sampled with 44,1 Khz and one with 96 Khz, because there is kept more of the atmosphere respective the whole "space" of the sound. I would prefer to record with 192 Khz, which is possible with my sound-card, but unfortunately I always get some of these "digital artefacts" respective suddenly interruptions. (May be it´s because my computer is becoming older and it´s overextended with this highest samplerate. In former times I could make more easily recordings in that quality with the same computer.
I have burned my recording on a DVD-Audio with 96 Khz and it´s really inspiring to listen to it (I have a player, which plays SACD´s and DVD-Audio-format). I personally have the feeling, only like this I really can hear, what I have done concerning my touch and expression and I can think about it and overwork it. That´s one of the reasons why I do recordings.


StuKautsch wrote:

Thank you very much for listening and your encouraging words! Tempo in Bach-pieces is always a matter of taste, so the main thing is, that you personally liked it.

 

Hi Riley,
pianoman342 wrote:

Thank you for your praise and criticism. I think, you are right. Normally I change something during the repeat in the prelude, f.ex. another articulation or dynamic or something else. But in this case somehow I had no idea respective inspiration for that. I find the prelude too lyrical to play something too much non legato here and the dynamic at the beginning seems to be prescribed by Bach himself, isn´t it?

hreichgott wrote:

Thank you for the praise. I´m happy you like my verison. Yes, may be you are right concerning the beginning. Sometimes I need a while to come into a piece, so it could be here, too. The idea of thinking vertically in fugues is important, indeed, because the horizontal thinking is its nature. Thank you for reminding me to that!

 

Troglodyte wrote:

Hi Joachim,
thank you for the praise, especially for "expressiveness with small nuances", which means a lot to me! (And sorry for my quite late answer, I´m just very busy in this moment.) I´m glad you could enjoy my recording.