I
reviewed Book
I of Craig Sheppard’s traversal of
The Well Tempered Clavier about
a year ago. That was recorded in April 2007. Book II followed
a year later. And so with almost inevitable symmetry I review
Book II almost a year after
it was recorded, as ever
in the Meany Theatre, Seattle. The central issues I located
in Book I are reprised here and loath though I am to quote
myself so consistent and remarkable is Sheppard’s playing
that it seems apposite; the salient features of his playing
include a thorough absorption of editorial concerns, a concern
for clarity of articulation, a determination to let the music
take wing and yet to explore gravity with appropriate weight.
To that end he never over pedals, and his touch encourages
kaleidoscopic, shifting patterns to emerge but never to obscure
the contrapuntal or harmonic nature of the music’s direction.
The
uncanny thing in his playing is the sense of rightness of
every tempo decision, the rhythmic propulsion that underlies
it, the logic that is part of his arching schema, the voicings,
and the acute and judicious pedalling. The result is an absorbing
illustration of a kind of synthesis between heart and mind,
between thorough study and absorption of stylistic models,
and of pragmatic decision-making. It’s the kind of playing
that I would characterise as non-intercessionary. It sweeps
you up in the directional arrow of its music making and casts
you onwards.
One
can merely listen to the unselfconscious warmth of phrasing
of the Prelude in C major, the exquisitely weighted control
and dynamic shading that follow in ensuing Preludes; the
vitality and clarity of articulation of the Prelude in D
minor; the gravity of the Fugue in E major; the freedom and
joyfulness that emanate from the F major Fugue. Similarly
there is a culminatory sense of magnificent eloquence in
the F sharp minor Fugue and a surety of direction – something
that applies throughout of course, but this is a particular
example of it – in the Prelude in B flat minor.
There
are, in fact, no abrasive issues with this performance. The
recording is, as is usual with this source, quite up-front
but it didn’t disturb me. This two disc set represents another
triumph for a musician who never parades or shows off, who
devotes himself to the truth as he finds it and who abjures
all extraneous and slick gestures in its pursuit.
Jonathan
Woolf
Craig Sheppard
(piano) 
