BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Preludes & Fugues 13-24 – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour

by | Mar 23, 2015 | Classical CD Reviews

BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Preludes & Fugues 13-24 – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour CD 177, 55:32 (2/1/15) ****:

Mordecai Shehori extends his survey (rec. July 2014) of the WTC, Book I via the Frederic Chopin annotations and instructions – as to touch, phrasing, fingering, hand distribution, voice leading, dynamics, and tempo – all to the purpose of revealing the eminently vocal character of Bach’s style. If Shehori demonstrates anything beyond what he accomplishes in Book I, Nos. 1-12, it must be a refreshed intimacy of expression, an inwardness of expression that aligns Bach not so much with Chopin’s aesthetic so much as with that of Robert Schumann.

How different the Shehori approach is, even than that of a revered master like Backhaus, in their realization of the G Major Prelude and Fugue, BWV 860. Backhaus’ Italianate attack and piercing accents have been countered by softer contours in Shehori, legato and lilted ariosi. Consider the fluid independence of the hands in Shehori’s A Minor Prelude, BWV 865. The chromatically arresting lines of the G-sharp Minor, BWV 863 already point to Chopin’s equally rich bass voicings, the dark melancholy of the fugue subject a natural basis for much of Cesar Franck, specifically his organ works.

In several of the Preludes and Fugues, the vocal intent absorbs the portato effect of violin playing, here transferred to a silken keyboard line. Few pianists have devoted themselves to the mastery of touches in the quest for clean, unmannered articulation as Shehori, and I recommend a close study of his Fugue in A Major, BWV 864 as an example. The supple elements of the line resolve en route with natural landings, as gratifying as the stretti that precede the final cadence. If another analogy will suffice besides an organ composition, consider the writing in the expansive A Minor Fugue, BWV 865 as an animated vocal motet, with leading baritone lines. The sudden transition to the B-flat Major Prelude, BWV 866 could not be more dramatic, with its toccata elements and singing and declamatory flourishes, almost a study for the BWV 903 Chromatic Fantasy.

Once more, as a modern example of scholarship-become-high art, this fusion of Gnostic musical spirits demands our appreciation and aesthetic acknowledgement.

—Gary Lemco

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