Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846-869
Abdel Rahman El Bacha (piano)
rec. 29, 30 October and 1, 2 November 2010, Chichibu Muse Park, Saitama
TRITON OVCT-00077 [54:48 + 56:36]
Impressed by Abdel Rahman El Bacha’s recording of Ravel’s complete
piano works for the Triton label (see review),
my buds of intrigue were alerted when I saw he had recorded Bach’s Well-Tempered
Clavier, Book I. You can never have enough J.S. Bach, and I seem to have
acquired quite a variety of recorded versions over the years. This means I’ve
pretty much passed the stage of making comparisons, and have come to think
more in terms of ‘does this give me pleasure?’ and ‘if not
why not/if so why?’ rather than considering any particular version to
be ‘better than’. If you love this music on piano, there are so
many versions to choose from it’s impossible to tell anyone they should
possess one over another, and true J.S. Bach fans will be almost certain to
have more than one WTC I in any case.
In some ways, the comments I made on El Bacha’s Ravel apply here as
well. To paraphrase, I don’t know quite how he does it, but he manages
to give relatively straightforward performances of Bach’s refined masterpieces,
at the same time making the music highly attractive and desirable. His playing
has a ‘romantic’ touch, in that he plays with a certain elasticity,
allowing a little rubato here and there to emphasise important harmonic points
or to allow melodic phrases to breathe. If I have any criticism of this is
the occasional final cadence which is extended perhaps a little too much,
but this is a point of taste and a relatively minor one. My spirits are always
raised when I hear things I haven’t quite heard in the same way before,
and there is something in the way El Bacha does his Prelude No.2 in C minor
which makes it sound a little like a virtuoso cimbalom. Is it half-pedalling?
Talking of pedalling, El Bacha is less ‘dry’ than some pianists,
Angela
Hewitt in particular, though by no means does he use the pedal to excess,
and clarity is a strong feature of these preludes and fugues. The ‘spring’
in the C minor fugue and the dancing nature of the music such as in the C-sharp
major Prelude and Fugue No. 3 is delightfully animated.
The Prelude and Fugue No. 4 in C-sharp minor is always an important
moment, and El Bacha’s flowing pace in the prelude is lovely, the fugue
given plenty of space to expand but not taken to extremes of slowness. He
doesn’t spotlight those dramatic entries as the fugue builds, allowing
the narrative of the music to maintain its momentum and the notes to speak
for themselves. There are pianists who take us on more far-reaching journeys,
and whose return to the repose of the final bars is more hard won, but this
is still a stirring experience, and one which sits well in proportion to the
surrounding pieces.
Other highlights for me include the Prelude and fugue No. 8 in E-flat minor,
which is supremely poetic in its simplicity in El Bacha’s hands, his
ornamentation always measured in the prelude, the beautiful lyrical lines
of the fugue shaped with vocal softness. The only place where I feel the tempo
might have been a little more ongoing is the Prelude No. 10 in E-minor,
where the accompanying undulations are given a little too much presence. Interesting
is his little acceleration towards the faster final section, more often leapt
on as a quick gear-change by other pianists. El Bacha’s Fugue No.
14 in F-sharp minor is superbly controlled, and it is quite surprising
how much expression he can obtain from what is in fact quite a limited dynamic
range - he doesn’t swoop or climb much within each piece, keeping a
consistency of language and message per prelude or fugue, which adds to the
sense of the reading as a well conceived cycle rather than a series of contrapuntal
vignettes. El Bacha is uncontroversial, but more importantly is entirely convincing,
and brings a smile in sunny pieces like the Fugue No. 17 in A-flat major.
The emotional swings aren’t as extreme as with someone like Roger Woodward
(see review),
but the joy in the music and its rhetorical character is always present even
if the deepest profundities are perhaps less searchingly explored - and it
has to be said, the recording is much better.
This demonstration recording sounds superb both in standard as well as SACD
stereo. The Triton label doesn’t go in for surround sound, but with
such deep and rich sonics and a beautifully prepared Bechstein instrument
this is hardly necessary. The acoustic is nicely resonant without being intrusive.
I am extremely impressed by this WTC I, know that it is one to which
I will return frequently in future, with only the hope that there is more
Bach in the pipeline from Abdel Rahman El Bacha.
Dominy Clements
Superb: measured and uncontroversial, but - how does he do it?