Book II of the Well-Tempered Klavier by J.S. Bach, recorded by the incomparable Glenn Gould. I was looking for a specific fugue to share, but decided to serve up the whole lot direct from YouTube. It is well worth 1 hour and 44 minutes of your time.
A little piece of perfection for this Thursday in late March.
“Menuet Antique”, by Maurice Ravel, in the original piano arrangement:
The version arranged for full orchestra, as with all Ravel orchestrations, is also well worth a listen.
Shostakovich, Piano Concerto no. 2, Op, 102, 1st movement. Performed here by one of my favourite emerging pianists, Kirill Gerstein, accompanied by the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit:
Happy Friday, everyone!
Variation XV of “The Goldberg Variations” by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), performed here by Rosalyn Tureck, one of my very favourite Bach interpreters aside from the peerless Glenn Gould:
This recording dates from 1957, which is just after Gould made his historic 1955 recording for Colombia Records. However, you will find no influence of Gould in Rosalyn Tureck’s interpretation here. Very classical, with a smoky, melancholy, romantic, almost Victorian hue. And, of course, played much slower and with all of the repeats.
One of my very favourite pieces of music, Piano Concerto no. 3 by Béla Bartok (1881-1945), performed here by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Simon Rattle, with Andras Schiff as the soloist:
The mini fugue section starting at 0’50, introduced by the piano and then picked up by strings, is sublime.
In fact, I love all three movements of this piece. The second movement is so serene and still (the piece was a gift from Bartok to his wife, written in his final days, and in many ways can be seen as a farewell letter to her, or to life), and makes a marvellous contrast with the explosive start to the final movement, given here.
Semi-Partisan Politics 