It is always amazing that Bach's keyboard music is robust enough to withstand so many interpretations and transcriptions. Here, the piano is not so far removed from the original keyboards of Bach's time, but the interpretation by Daniel Barenboim of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, is slightly unusual. Most piano performances of this work fall into one of two schools: either they are played with gracefulness and little coloring, as if they were played on a harpsichord, or they are played with large amounts of color and several dynamic, emotional layers. Barenboim's interpretation falls almost exactly in between those two extremes, but leans toward the more colorful side of the scale. He plays with grace or with stronger colors where he deems necessary, but never exaggerates. In some of the fugues and a few of the preludes, such as the Prelude and Fugue in B flat No. 21, he does use more pedal and contrasting dynamics as if to emulate the sonorities of an organ. In others, such as the well-worn Prelude No. 1 and the Prelude No. 2, he uses different touches, never playing the repeated rhythms the same way all through the piece and taking advantage of the contrast between legato and staccato, to create more musically interesting phrases within each piece. That alone refreshingly sets these apart from other performances, where those preludes are treated more like etudes with the object of making sure a particular technique is learned through strict repetition. Barenboim seems to look at each piece in the WTC not as a music exercise, but as a musical testimonial. The sound quality is very good throughout, making this a very respectable alternative to overly Romantic or more historically informed piano performances of WTC, Book 1.
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