Bach Keyboard Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Label: Naxos
Magazine Review Date: 6/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 58
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 8 550679
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (15) 2-Part Inventions |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
János Sebestyén, Harpsichord Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
| (15) 3-Part Inventions ,'Sinfonias' |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
János Sebestyén, Harpsichord Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
| Anna Magdalena Notenbuch, Movement: ~ |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
János Sebestyén, Harpsichord Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
| Anna Magdalena Notenbuch, Movement: Musette in D, BWVAnh126 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
János Sebestyén, Harpsichord Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
Author: John Duarte
No inkling of Sebestyen's reasons for choosing to present Bach on the piano, with over two decades of harpsichord recordings behind him, is to be found in the insert-booklet. Whatever the answer, there is a place for a satisfactory piano version of the Two- and Three-Part Inventions—which neither Gould nor Schiff provides, and there is always a market for one. These are simple pieces, without a profound message, intended to assist Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann to play clearly in two and three parts, and to develop his legato touch; Sebestyen wisely reads them in that spirit instead of looking for what is not there. His are clean performances in every sense, with well-balanced lines, no extravagant gradation of volume, with just enough (and that means very little) rubato to shape his phrases—and with no romantic dwelling to make a note more important than is its due. As a player thereof he knows the difference between a harpsichord and a typewriter; his staccatos leave only chinks of silence between notes and they are economically used.
Had Sebestyen taken a more 'sophisticated' approach to these Inventions the simple pieces from Anna Magdalena's Notenbuchlein could have come either as an anticlimax or as a relief, according to one's point of view, but proper proportion is preserved so that they sound as though they belong there. So many of the items in this recording are used as piano-teaching material that it is well to have such excellent examples of their performance available—and so well recorded at that.'
Had Sebestyen taken a more 'sophisticated' approach to these Inventions the simple pieces from Anna Magdalena's Notenbuchlein could have come either as an anticlimax or as a relief, according to one's point of view, but proper proportion is preserved so that they sound as though they belong there. So many of the items in this recording are used as piano-teaching material that it is well to have such excellent examples of their performance available—and so well recorded at that.'
Bach Keyboard Works
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