Bach Das Wohltemperirte Klavier, Book 1
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach, Harriet Cohen
Label: Biddulph
Magazine Review Date: 7/1995
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 77
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: LHW023

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: C, BWV846 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: C minor, BWV847 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: C sharp, BWV848 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: C sharp minor, BWV849 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: D, BWV850 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: D minor, BWV851 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: E flat, BWV852 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: E flat minor/D sharp minor, BWV853 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: E, BWV854 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Harriet Cohen, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: E minor, BWV855 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: F, BWV856 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: F minor, BWV857 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: F sharp, BWV858 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: F sharp minor, BWV859 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: G, BWV860 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: G minor, BWV861 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
(Das) Wohltemperierte Klavier, '(The) Well-Tempered Clavier, Movement: A flat, BWV862 |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Evlyn Howard Jones, Piano Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
Author:
Astonishing as it may seem to us today, it was not until 1928 that a complete recording of Book 1 of the 48 was planned; even so, it was never finished. Harriet Cohen recorded the sequence as far as the E major Prelude and Fugue; the following year Evlyn Howard Jones, her senior by nearly 20 years, took it as far as A flat major; the remainder were perhaps intended for Harold Samuel, but the project was abandoned on the merger of Columbia with HMV (forming EMI) in 1931.
Of the present two artists, there is little doubt who was the better Bach stylist and the more mature musician – Eugen d'Albert's pupil Evlyn Howard Jones, who was never as well known as Harriet Cohen but shows himself here to be a pianist of outstanding quality and intelligence, with a refined tonal subtlety and a developed sense of structure. His interpretations, well judged in matters of tempo, are free from the exaggerations and posturings of Cohen, who is acceptably clean-fingered in the faster movements (though she races the D minor Prelude) but adopts 'hunt the slipper' interpretations of the fugues (heavy-handedly 'bringing out the subject'), becomes swoonily sentimental in the C sharp minor (the end of its Fugue pulled about unmercifully), and behaves in the E flat minor Prelude like a tragedy queen. The recordings have been skilfully transferred with commendable fidelity, and only rarely does surface noise or rhythmic turntable beat obtrude. R1 '9507165'
Of the present two artists, there is little doubt who was the better Bach stylist and the more mature musician – Eugen d'Albert's pupil Evlyn Howard Jones, who was never as well known as Harriet Cohen but shows himself here to be a pianist of outstanding quality and intelligence, with a refined tonal subtlety and a developed sense of structure. His interpretations, well judged in matters of tempo, are free from the exaggerations and posturings of Cohen, who is acceptably clean-fingered in the faster movements (though she races the D minor Prelude) but adopts 'hunt the slipper' interpretations of the fugues (heavy-handedly 'bringing out the subject'), becomes swoonily sentimental in the C sharp minor (the end of its Fugue pulled about unmercifully), and behaves in the E flat minor Prelude like a tragedy queen. The recordings have been skilfully transferred with commendable fidelity, and only rarely does surface noise or rhythmic turntable beat obtrude. R1 '9507165'
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