Another airing of this wonderful 4 disc set of Bach's 48 Preludes & Fugues [19th November 2011 & 5th August 2010], endless enlightenment, i played a disc a day over the last four days, it's certainly hard to take the whole lot in one go, and on this listen, i tried to especially hear the less well known pieces, to try and bring them into the light, i think i made some new 'friends' this time around, it's almost impossible to truly keep your attention on examining the whole lot, some pass 'under the radar', while others just somehow 'catch your eye', but i can certainly say it's like learning a new language, a day in a foreign country will always mean that you'll pick up a few new words each time, i got to know these pieces better, which will stand me in good stead when i decide to take another visit.
Tatiana Nikolayeva is Russian [1924-1993], a great interpreter of Bach, and of course a great friend to Shostakovich, she recorded this great work here in 1984 in Tokyo Japan, unlike a lot of Nikolayeva's discs, this one has a really good front cover, Nikolayeva obviously not young anymore, but the portrait is a good one, and certainly the black on yellow lettering on the right works well, a lovely boxed set, the back inlay card is well laid out, giving a Prelude & Fugue only one track number, this is actually helpful as it allows me to play each disc on random, which is my preferred way of listening, if the Preludes and Fugues had separate track numbers, then playing on random would split up such pairs, and wouldn't work, so everything seems so well laid out, and a joy to listen to and follow.
Well there's so much that is worth mentioning here, and yet i want to keep my Blog entries fairly concise, so i'll just mention two, and that's Prelude & Fugue 3, and Prelude & Fugue 27, which are actually the third pieces of each of the two books, and therefore both are in the key of C Sharp Major, and however great number 3 is, it's actually number 27 i want to concentrate on, it's one of the numbers i haven't noticed before, and the Prelude sounds almost like a more complex version of number 1 [from Book One], and for that i love it all the more, i like the way Nikolayeva gets a lovely ringing tone out of the piano, the top treble notes are emphasised, and i feel she has that ability to differentiate 'voices' within a piece, nicely terraced, she starts off gentle too, as if the piece floats in from nowhere, the whole thing just seems perfect, i've listened to the Gulda version, and it's very similar, it's one of the strangest Preludes as it has a very sharp change of direction towards the end [1:17+], it's like the Prelude has it's own very Prelude & Fugue within!, it suddenly jerks into another gear, and the volume suddenly shouts, but it's thrilling, the change can be overemphasised, but i think Nikolayeva gets it right here, on the original listen i liked the Prelude more than the Fugue, but on analysing it more here, i find the Fugue so compelling, it's even better in retrospect, it's a very jerky and staccato Fugue [1:50+], with individual notes purposely sticking out like sore thumbs, and wow do i like that, it's like the piano equivalent of hiccups!, those emphasis's on some notes over others works wonders, and then a little later there's trills coming in, and they're a treat later [2:50-2:54], the Fugue goes from an obviously jerky staccato to a more smoother version towards the end, it's a superb Prelude & Fugue that is now firmly my 'friend' for ever.
Here's Nikolai Demidenko playing Prelude & Fugue 27 [BWV 872] on YouTube, i must admit he plays it quite fast, and gets a completely different feel to the piece than Nikolayeva.
Well there's so much that is worth mentioning here, and yet i want to keep my Blog entries fairly concise, so i'll just mention two, and that's Prelude & Fugue 3, and Prelude & Fugue 27, which are actually the third pieces of each of the two books, and therefore both are in the key of C Sharp Major, and however great number 3 is, it's actually number 27 i want to concentrate on, it's one of the numbers i haven't noticed before, and the Prelude sounds almost like a more complex version of number 1 [from Book One], and for that i love it all the more, i like the way Nikolayeva gets a lovely ringing tone out of the piano, the top treble notes are emphasised, and i feel she has that ability to differentiate 'voices' within a piece, nicely terraced, she starts off gentle too, as if the piece floats in from nowhere, the whole thing just seems perfect, i've listened to the Gulda version, and it's very similar, it's one of the strangest Preludes as it has a very sharp change of direction towards the end [1:17+], it's like the Prelude has it's own very Prelude & Fugue within!, it suddenly jerks into another gear, and the volume suddenly shouts, but it's thrilling, the change can be overemphasised, but i think Nikolayeva gets it right here, on the original listen i liked the Prelude more than the Fugue, but on analysing it more here, i find the Fugue so compelling, it's even better in retrospect, it's a very jerky and staccato Fugue [1:50+], with individual notes purposely sticking out like sore thumbs, and wow do i like that, it's like the piano equivalent of hiccups!, those emphasis's on some notes over others works wonders, and then a little later there's trills coming in, and they're a treat later [2:50-2:54], the Fugue goes from an obviously jerky staccato to a more smoother version towards the end, it's a superb Prelude & Fugue that is now firmly my 'friend' for ever.
Here's Nikolai Demidenko playing Prelude & Fugue 27 [BWV 872] on YouTube, i must admit he plays it quite fast, and gets a completely different feel to the piece than Nikolayeva.
