Alfred Brendel's career as a pianist could be divided into three periods. There's his early virtuoso period that began with his 1955 coupling of
Mussorgsky's Pictures and
Stravinsky's three movements from Petrushka and climaxed with his 1961 recording of
Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. There's his middle intellectual period that began with his move to Philips in 1970 and lasted pretty much the next 25 years. There's his late poetic period -- the period that, unfortunately, began long after this
Bach recital from 1977. One cannot fault
Brendel's virtuosity: there's nothing in the blazingly difficult Italian Concerto he can't handle. One cannot fault
Brendel's intellect: there's nothing in the coruscatingly brilliant Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue he can't fathom. But one can certainly fault his etiolated tone and desiccated interpretations. The joy in the Italian Concerto's outer movements, the agony in the Chromatic Fantasy's opening pages, the wit in the Prelude (Fantasy) in A minor, the excitement in the Fugue in A minor -- all these qualities are absent. But most painful is the loss of the solemn and sublime emotions in the two chorale preludes arranged by
Busoni, "Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" and particularly "Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland."
Brendel's playing is crystalline in its purity, but his interpretations ignore the meaning of the chorale texts and thereby miss the point of the music. For fans of virtuoso pianism and stupendous intellectualism, this disc may do the trick. For fans of deep soulfulness and profound spirituality, it may not. Philips' stereo piano sound is so clear, so close, and so vivid it's better than reality.