Koopman tends to justify Albert Schweitzer's remark that Bach is played "altogether too fast". Do you suppose JSB himself played that fast? I doubt it.
M-C Alain has done about three different sets of Bach. She says she never listens to her recordings. I think she's missing something. Hurford is good, and Walcha goes back somewhat farther.
I still have a hard time with the notion that fast tempi equal virtuosity. Put that in a large cathedral with a long reverb time, and what do you have? A cacaphony of noise without hearing the 'voices' of the pieces. Which do you prefer?
Hi dll927 !
I posted elsewhere here some time back that my teacher taught me that Bach must be played slower, so all the voices can be heard clearly.
I was raised with this school and with Walcha's performances.
I love Marie_Claire..... just love her.... can't help it or explain it... he he
Ton.... he overdone it many times, but, there are some recordings that are just superb. His early TrioSonatas with Archiv, for example are perfect in everything.
Peter.... one of the best, but lately I got James Kirbe's total works of the grand master and I'm still listen to them (huge work), so far I'm very pleased and enjoy the resoult, but I don't have a final opinion yet about..
About Bach playin' fast..... our friend Marc here and David if I recall correctly... (Marc where are you??!!) reported that many contemporaries had writen about how fast and perfect he played.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm thinking that if someone then had used to listen to organ music played at about 69bpm and then someone came and played these pieces at 80 to 90, this would apear as fast !
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know... You see at the time there aren't tempo markings on manuscripts so we do not know for shure the exact tempo Bach wanted.
There's another example with Widor. Almost all played his toccata fast and he (the creator) played it slow.....
So, I'm trying always to understand the inner meaning of the piece in question, how it feels and comes out as the first notes introduce themselves and then I decide the tempo. Playin at "breakin' neck speeds" (Lars' terminology) isn't by default a great virtuosity, sometimes may resemble to a circus performance !
Have fun anyway !
Panos