Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846-869 (1722)
Arthur Villar (piano)
rec. September to November 2012, Oktaven Audio, New York, USA
CD BABY 8087401 [50:49 + 52:50]
Arthur Villar is a young award-winning Brazilian-born pianist who has
been giving acclaimed performances of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier
since 2008. Now having released his own recording of this work the hope
is of course that his playing will go out to wider audiences, and with
a nice website and numerous
tracks from this release already to be sampled via YouTube, I’m sure his
performing career will go from strength to strength.
I’ve heard many a Well-Tempered Clavier and there are only a
very few which have left me cold, or for that matter given me a cold.
Arthur Villar’s recording is one which has the immediate appeal of a superb
recording made on a fine sounding Steinway D, and I have to say I was
intrigued by this performance from the outset.
With so many versions of this music on the market, the temptation for
newcomers has to be to make a distinctive personal mark in their interpretation.
I doubt there is a pianist alive who would deny the startling effect Glenn
Gould had on our perceptions of Bach’s keyboard music, and there are many
who have adopted at least some of his stylistic characteristics or who
acknowledge his influence. Arthur Villar seems to be very much his own
man in steering a path away from any particular ‘school’ of Bach performing,
appearing to be occupied as far as possible with the material in front
of him and his own responses to it, rather than allowing himself to be
swayed by the turbulent winds of fashion. His playing of Bach is not particularly
dramatic, and unlike Roger
Woodward sees
each prelude and fugue less as a mountainous emotional landscape to be
traversed, meeting challenges and holding and releasing tension like the
ropes of a heroic climber. I love Woodward’s Bach, but just as there are
many ways to climb a mountain, so there may be those who prefer to take
easier routes and enjoy the view.
Villar is lighter and takes his Bach without quite as much travail as
Woodward, and in terms of touch and reluctance to use the pedal he is
closer to Angela
Hewitt, though in going back and comparing it is quite startling to
hear how romantic she is in terms of rubato. Hewitt’s approach yields
magical moments and her Well-Tempered Clavier remains one of
my desert island choices, but I have to admit, when I returned to her
recording after some time with Villar the word ‘ham’ kept popping into
my mind.
Arthur Villar’s release comes with an informative booklet note on Bach’s
Well-Tempered Clavier by David Schulenberg, but Villar’s own
philosophy on the music remains something he has kept to himself. I sense
in his playing a search for purity, a return to Bach without imposed musical
expression which takes us away from the notes and towards the player.
This is something which I can only applaud, and the more I listen and
refer to other players the more I have come to appreciate the value of
such performing. I have no doubt there are those who would seek a greater
sense of excitement, of a pianist who ‘delivers’ more, but in delivering
Bach with simplicity and lack of adornment I have to say this is a recording
which strips away pretense and generates its own expressive atmosphere.
Just to avoid misunderstanding, Villar’s playing is anything but plain.
He has a fine legato, as you can hear in the E minor Prelude,
as well as plenty of detailed articulation as in the Fugue which
follows. He doesn’t go in for picky staccatos, extremes of tempo, striking
acoustic dramas of dynamic contrast or washy halos of perfumed beauty,
nor does he invent extra melodies through accenting or elongating notes
not marked as such in the scores. There are some pieces in which his direct
approach is less successful, and the Fugue in A minor is an example
of one of the more lumpy numbers in what is by and large a fine set. Nevertheless,
Villar’s playing is almost universally filled with quiet and natural sounding
expression, and a stylish and communicative projection of Bach’s lines
and rhythms.
Yes, there are one or two very small technical blemishes which I feel
obliged to remark on. About that rhythmic security, there are a couple
of places at which you sense the technical gloss of perfection has rubbed
just a little thin. Nothing goes wrong as such, but the left/right hand
co-ordination can waver slightly here and there, such as in a moment at
00:25/00:26 of the C minor Prelude, and perhaps the evenness
at 0:53 in the C# Prelude might be mentioned, or that mildly
edge-of-the seat feel around the torrent of notes in the G major Prelude.
These are all observations on minor points which would probably go unnoticed
in many cases, but if I’m going to praise something to the skies I can’t
help balancing up with any possible negatives. With Villar’s ‘straight’
rhythmic approach it has to be said that he leaves himself nowhere to
hide, and with no stretching rubati or extra expressive mannerisms
these slightest of human failings are always going to be more apparent.
This does have its down side in pieces which Bach clearly intended as
having a higher degree of fantasy and freedom, such as the Prelude
in B flat major, which comes across as neither one thing or another
in this case. There are few technical aspects of this recording which
would prevent me from recommending it however, so let’s leave it at that.
With Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier we have long gone beyond the
point of being able to hold up a single favourite recording, and I think
the best we can do is try and find where each new recording might position
itself in quite a thickly populated forest. Arthur Villar’s recording
is not at the top, but shines through the shrubbery for its clarity of
vision and honesty of approach. I can hear other critics shouting out
‘boooring!’ on the strength of superficial listening, but with attempts
at timelessness you have to take a longer view, gathering in detail as
well as taking away a general impression. Of the pianists I’ve plucked
out for comparison one of those who Villar at times comes closer to is
András Schiff in his 1984 Decca recording, but here there are also marked
contrasts. Schiff is relatively anti-romantic, but goes to greater lengths
in shining spotlights on what he considers are important lines, creating
points of character through emphasised articulation and at times extreme
dynamic layering – all points which have served to irritate me over the
years, though I understand his later ECM
version is the real deal. In this way I can pick out Arthur Villar
as a winner over at least one international superstar’s younger incarnation
– and that has to be recommendation enough.
Dominy Clements
Young Villar – preferable to young Schiff.
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