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Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, written as the composer himself adjusted appropriate in 1722 'for the profit and use of musical youth desiring instruction, and for the particular delight of those already skilled in this discipline', might on the face of it seem rather far from the context in which modern performances operate, the very concept of a 'performance' itself having moved away from the intimate setting the composer implies.
The emergence of the modern piano (roughly half-way between Bach's time of writing the 48 and today) as the instrument on which to play Bach may, form a purist's standpoint, have closed as many doors as it has opened, both as regards musical conceptualisations and technical concerns, and we would probably delude ourselves that with every new recording or academic paper on the subject of Baroque performance we move closer to what Bach actually had in his imagination, close on three centuries ago. What matters, to my mind, is not whether we could ever succeed in pleasing the great German composer in our representations of his music, but whether we can apply our scholarship sensibly to provide satisfying music-making for a modern audience wearing twenty-first century ears.
As Ying Chang observes in her reassuringly pluralist booklet notes with Jill Crossland's new disc, this might come down to whether one considers such performances to be reconstructions as opposed to reinterpretations (or even perhaps, re-creations rather than creations). In all probability we engage today with the 48 in a quite different way from how Baroque keyboardists may have done, leaving aside our response to the manifestly contrasting characteristics of a piano and, say, a clavichord, harpsichord or organ. For many Bach lovers this does not preclude the possibility of a wholesome and meaningful interpretation – and in any case, who can predict with any certainty what will pass for acceptable performance practice of this music in another one hundred, let alone three hundred years?
So, the litmus test for this new recording, or, to be more pragmatic, my litmus test, is the extent to which Crossland is able to embed herself in a communicative and consistent style that stands a chance of drawing in the listener for the two hours it takes to unfold the first Book of the 48. That said, not everyone will choose to digest Bach's music in this way – and perhaps BBC Radio 3's recent packaging of the 48 over a course of six weeks, to the accompaniment of the listener's breakfast crackle and pop, is more conductive, especially since it has encouraged comparison between new and old readings, period instruments with Steinways and revered performances with less well-known ones. Either way, I report on the Crossland discs with a smile in my voice, as the pianist so often succeeds in coaxing from the instrument an effect that coincides with my personal perspective of what the music amounts to, always accepting that for each of us the criteria will vary and the emphasis contrast significantly.
The slippery business of tempo selection is a major criterion here – Crossland rarely disappoints or antagonises with extremes, catching all the brilliance and nimbleness of the Prelude No. 21 in B flat major one could ask for, in stark contrast to the stately poise and pathos that she achieves in its successor, Prelude No. 22, which in accordance with Bach's key scheme is of course B flat minor, triggering a five-voice fugue – Crossland's is a reading of great weight and intensity. Angela Hewitt's recently re-released 48 for Hyperion has acquired bench-mark status for this music, although Crossland wins by a hair, at least in respect of the fiery Prelude No. 21, which has just that bit more brittleness and knife-edge quality to it, taken a notch faster. There is an enjoyment of the here-and-now in Crossland's playing, across the whole of Book 1, but also a feeling for its spiritual dimension expounded in the booklet notes. This is a polished and compelling account of Bach's Old Testament; Book 2 is awaited with eager anticipation.
Mark Tanner, International Record Review, February 2008
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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