Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Craig Sheppard :: J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1

Intense! One of the best new recordings of WTC.

B. Lee | Chicago, IL USA | 05/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Last week, I acquired four new recordings of Bach's WTC--Hewitt's new one, Ashkenazy's, Koroliov's and Sheppard's--and some others. (I'm not rich. I'm a student. I usually just have to have whatever I want. I guess I'm a spoiled brat.)



I'd read the glowing reviews and had known that all of the four recordings would certainly be excellent. And they did not disappoint. All of them get five stars from me. It is thus pointless to measure which one is better than which one. But I slightly prefer Sheppard's and Hewitt's; they are somewhat more imaginative and poignant. Ashkenazy's is most straightforward and unfussy; some people might prefer this kind of approach. In terms of pure recorded sound, Hewitt's and Koroliov's are better.



Sheppard's recording is the most intense of the bunch; it becomes quite incandescent in some parts, and yet quite lyrical in some other parts. This is a live recording. And it's perhaps the only live recording of WTC, as far as I know. Sheppard's playing itself is very meticulous: there is no blatant mistake even though it was done live. You can really feel the keen sense of live music-making and the overall structural cohesion that can easily be missed in over-edited studio recordings.



Highly recommended!



(I also left a review for Hewitt's new WTC.)"