It’s not a novel concept, surely, but it’s good enough
not to need
to be: perform - or in this case, record - Bach’s Prelude & Fugue pairs
from either of the two books of the Well Tempered Clavier alternating with Shostakovich’s
Bach-inspired Preludes & Fugues from op.87. For the purpose of easing a few
classically interested but Shostakovich-resistant friends and relatives into
the music of the great Russian, even I have recently made a sampler that does
that. A particular arrangement of six Prelude & Fugue pairs - C, G, D and
each relative minor - from the WTC II played by Tatiana Nikolayeva (because it
was her Bach-playing that inspired Shostkovich to his op.87) and the DSCH played
by Keith Jarrett (because his Shostakovich is most Bach-like) come together as
a surprisingly homogenous mix where a casual listener might well miss where Bach
ends and Shostakovich begins. I was surprised to hear how well it works. More
surprised was I when I got Bernd Glemser’s latest disc on Oehms that uses
the same concept - and remains strangely pale; awkward even.
Bernd Glemser might be known to the record collector through his many Naxos recordings,
especially of Russian repertoire. Or because he is the most winningest piano
competition participant; winning top prizes at 17 competitions in a row, alongside
colleagues-to-be like Louis Lortie and Ricardo Castro. His awards fill pages
of booklet notes, which, after reading, make you wonder why he isn’t better
known; why he never attained real international star-pianist status. Perhaps
because there is no flashiness to Glemser, who has been a professor of piano
since he was 27? Or because of the curse of early Naxos - when, until a few years
ago, Naxos and its artists were looked down upon as inherently second rate? As
with co-sufferer Idil Biret, I know that his playing can’t account for
that relative neglect. It reminds me of José Serebrier. Few living conductors-certainly
not American conductors-come even close to winning as many Grammys, yet, unless
you collect Glazunov Symphonies, you’d be excused for never having heard
of him.
Glemser now
records for Oehms, a small German label that scrutinizes which artists it
picks, and then sticks with them. Their criteria are apparently solely musical,
not marketing-based-and their roster includes the singularly unglamorous but
highly respected Ivor
Bolton, Michael
Korstick, Stanislaw
Skrowaczewski, and Bertrand
De Billy. This move isn’t going to get Glemser into the pages of the
glossy magazines, either, but it’s a step up. CDs of Bach piano transcriptions
and Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations were very promising and well received.
Now this.
For those interested in tonal relationship, Glemser couples a Prelude & Fugue
in G (Bach, Bk.1) with its relative minor, e (DSCH), then g sharp (Bach, Bk.2)
with
its (enharmonic) parallel major A flat (DSCH), then Bach’s F sharp and
its
relative
minor e flat (Bk.1) followed by e flat and D flat (DSCH), concluding with the
latter’s
relative minor, b flat (Bach, Bk.2).
Just why this concept album of Bach and Shostakovich doesn’t take off is
difficult to say. Perhaps because some of the Bach (take the g sharp Fugue) is
stilted - neither featuring impressive legato qualities nor crisp rhythm? Or
perhaps
because the juxtaposition just doesn’t quite jibe? The imposing, virtuoso
Shostakovich Fugue in D flat set right before the concluding b flat Prelude & Fugue
seems out of place and gratuitously contrasting. Not surprisingly, I very much
like the Shostakovich playing on this disc, but surely this disc wasn’t
meant to be attractive just for four Shostakovich Prelude & Fugue pairs.
Jens F. Laurson
Bernd Glemser (piano)
