J.S. BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I & II (2000/2010)
Performed by four pianists: Andrei Gavrilov, Joanna McGregor, Nikolai Demidenko, Angela Hewitt – at four different venues
Directors: Karen Whiteside, Peter Mumford
Studio: BBC Wales/EuroArts 2050308 (2 DVDs) [6/29/10] (Distr. by Naxos)
Video: 16:9 color
Audio: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1, DD 5.1
No region code
Length: DVD 1 – 121 min.; DVD 2 – 139 min.
Rating: *****
This special project was put together for the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death in 2000 and originally released on DVD the following year. The production screened as BBC shorts of the various preludes and fugues between programs, and the first version was assembled from these, including spoken introductions to each one by the pianists. I have reviewed similar classical DVDs in the past and wondered how this spoken extraneous material would stand up on repeated viewings. Not very well, I surmise, and the distributors and/or producers decided to now reissue this set as a pared-down version with only the actual performances and all the credits rolled thru at the conclusion of each of the two books. It also sells at a lower price than the original.
It strikes me as a wonderful idea to have videos of all of Bach’s landmark WTC, and I believe having it on video opens up viewing by many who would never consider sitting down to just listen to CDs of all – or any – of the WTC. The pairs of preludes and fugues Nos. 1 – 12 of Book I are performed by Andrei Gavrilov in the New Art Gallery, Walsall (which was just built a few years ago). The pairs Nos. 13 – 24 of Book I are played by Joanna McGregor in the quirky Gaudi-designed Palau Güell in Barcelona. Nikolai Demidenko performs the pairs Nos. 1 – 12 of Book II on a Fazioli piano (richer sound than the Steinways on the others) in the Palazzo Labia in Venice (a beautifully-restored 18th century residence), and finally Angela Hewitt plays Nos. 13 – 24 of Book II in the Wartburg Castle (dating back to 1067!).
Most listeners probably regard Bach’s WTC as merely a collection of 48 musicological exercises, not that different from Czerny’s Etudes that some of us who were piano students had to struggle thru. The whole set – including Bach’s use of fugues in Book II, which by that time were totally out of fashion – is regarded as something rather boring when compared to the excitement of, say, the Brandenburg Concertos. This DVD production puts the lie to that impression. These are glorious, fantastically-skilled keyboard creations that – as Albert Schweitzer put it: “…transport us out of the world of strife into the world of peace.” Hearing them performed can be a meditative, even religious experience, but it also brings home a realization of Bach’s simply amazing compositional skills. Especially in the fugues, one is constantly surprised by the multiple voices that come into what is, after all, just a two-handed piece, and how well the pianists bring them out in their playing. Although, like most piano students, I played some of the Book I Preludes and Fugues, I never dealt with Book II and haven’t listened to it since Ralph Kirkpatrick’s harpsichord recording on DGG of many years ago. These pieces get seriously complicated and involved, with passages which could well serve Charles Ives’ idea of “ear-stretching” music. By the way, although I’m a proponent of performing appropriate early music on the harpsichord instead of the piano, I wasn’t a bit put off by these performances being on the more modern instrument. They are full of expressive possibilities which can only be brought out on the grand piano, and a piano production will attract a larger audience for the DVDs.
The producers made a strong effort to avoid visual boredom in this video cover all the 48 Preludes and Fugues. First, they chose four pianists with somewhat different approaches to performing the works. Three of them are absolutely first rate, with the greatest clarity of line, phrasing and accents. Gavrilov is a bit odd and fussy in his keyboard approach, but not off-putting. Then the producers selected four venues that provide variety in the physical settings. Two different directors were selected for the series – one for Book I and another for Book II. Both go to extraordinary lengths to visually differentiate each Prelude & Fugue from the next one. Lighting and color change in major ways from one setting to another; some are with sun streaming in thru stained-glass windows, others are at night with candles. One makes creative use of a giant mirror behind the pianist, while others have shots taken from the end of long hallways or even from another building across the way. For each Prelude & Fugue, the pianist wears a different outfit – some informal and others dressed to the nines. Hewitt favors revealing backless dresses, which become somewhat distracting as her shoulder blades stick out. McGregor (who is the glamorous one of the four) has for some of the selections a Napoleonic-era-looking hairstyle with big ringlets in front of her eyes which must be distracting to her if not to the viewer. You never see the microphones, although in a couple shots you briefly can spy the cameraman and dolly-puller reflected in the shiny ebony finish of the sides of the Steinway. There is a somewhat odd artifact of “swimming” pixels on certain horizontal surfaces such as windowsills, and on the black keys and the pins inside the grand pianos. I wonder if it could be artifacts caused by the conversion of the probably original PAL videos to NTSC?
Director Mumford, who did Book II, gets even more creative in a manner that might be a bit too artsy-fartsy for some viewers. The camera movements during some of the pieces become almost distracting – constantly tracking down a corridor with the pianist in the distance, for example. At the end of one shot with many candles in the room, a hand with a sleeve attired in 18th-century style suddenly comes in from the left, cups the closest candle, and blows it out. In another, two little children in 18th-century dress suddenly appear in a doorway, and later a whole circle of ghostly little children-spirits dance around the pianist while she plays. I was reminded of the ghost photographs phenomenon, and of the old stereo views with ghostly visions in them.
The odd visual quirks didn’t bother me greatly, and the great variety of presentation set the various pieces apart and increased my interest. The piano sound was too amorphous and muffled with the DTS 5.1 setting, so I settled on the clearer and more prominent PCM Stereo track. (I used the Party audio setting, which still maintained a stronger sound level at the front, but with the surrounds adding an ambient field.) Since each of the pianists was filmed in different environments, and these are obviously not pre-taped video performances, the piano sound varies considerably from one setting to another, but is generally good – especially considering the highly reflective qualities of most of the venues. I wouldn’t suggest viewing both DVDs at one sitting; I broke it up into four portions.
— John Sunier
