Bach pianists (or harpsichordists)

Well of course Glenn Gould has no shortage of personality ;-) There's also a lovely old recording of Horszowski doing book 1 of the WTC.

 

Piano only:

Classic Recordings:
Jorg Demus (original, first recording of Books 1 and 2)
Sviatoslav Richter 1973 recordings (Bach, God, and Richter.... I leave it to the listener to figure who's at the top)
Feinberg (Book 2 is full of insights, but definitely not historically accurate... just phenomenal pianism, nonetheless)
Gould (not crazy about these)
Tureck (not crazy about these, either)
Loesser (some people think this is the Bible; very, very old recordings; they just don't turn my crank)
Edwin Fischer (this version is in the Great Pianists of the Century collection; and yes there are some beautiful interpetations of the slower fugues.)

Newer, but still good or, at least, interesting:
Barenboim (totally non-strict liberty-taking interpretation with phenomenal control and technique)
Schepkin (by the book, but letter perfect technique)
Cload (very romantic, reverberent recording.... but replete with stunning performances of many p and f)
Koroliov (I only have his Book 1, but truly a thinking person's Bach)


Somewhat Interesting:
Bernard Roberts (OK... many folks call him a second-tier pianist, but his WTC is absolutely better than most)
Nikolayeva (once told Richter, or said about Richter, apparently, that he didn't know how to play Bach!.... well.... you can't be right all the time)
Horszowski (romantic, but interesting, book 1 only)
Pollini (sort of pleasing, in places, book 1 only)
Jando (a little heavy-handed, but some great performances in certain instances)

Just NOT my cup of tea:
Hewitt (both versions; very pretty but boring interpretations)
Afanassiev (brilliant but boring; harsh recording sound)
Schiff (Can play Bach, but just wasn't "on" when he did these years ago)
Feltsman (A total yawn for me, but some people get into his interpretations)
Keith Jarrett (Book 1 piano; Book 2 harpsichord.... I love his Handel Suites and his Shostakovitch P&F, but the Bach is yawn..)
Aldwell (by-the-book-yawn)

JG

 

Terez, have you heard Wolfgang Rubsam? He's the only pianist (mainly organist) I know who recorded Bach AND studied Baroque performance practice. There is no youTube video with him... but you can listen to his entire piano recording on http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com. He recorded English and French suites, Sinfonias and Inventions, Partitas, Fantaisie Chromatique, Italian Concerto, and some WTC preludes.

About harpsichordists, Gustav Leonhardt is a great reference (if not the greatest of all. =D).
There is also his pupil Robert Hill. Pieter Belder is excellent also. All of them studied Baroque performance.

Hm... looks like someone changed his mind from 2008 to 2012. :lol:

 

I just found another pianist who plays with Baroque articulation and inflection: Cristopher Sager.

Beautiful performances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4aFpjYYWPk

 

Angela Hewitt I have seen on my video-sharing site here Youku.com playing the WTC. Fine performances, clean voicing and good tempo. I hear she is giving a masterclass in London next month, would like to see that

Also, though some detest his "romantic" playing of the WTC, Daniel Barenboim, his 2006 recording is quite fine. I don't think it's that romantic, there is just a little more tempo freedom in his, but it's nothing of the tempo freedom that we hear from Dinnerstein. Of course, Dinnerstein hasn't recorded the WTC.

 

Czaja Sager doing the partitas: haven't heard these. Quite beautiful, old-fashioned piano-playing, almost out of another century... Hard to figure! Just slow enough that he's forcing the listener to listen--again--to what's happening in the Partitas that we may have missed when we were "younger"!!!