- Conductor: None
- Composer: J S Bach
- Audio CD (7 Feb 2011)
- Number of Discs: 2
- Label: Divine Art
- ASIN: B004FUPAU6
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 321,001 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I am surprised by the previous reviewer's assessment of Diana Boyle's outstanding interpretation of the Art of Fugue, and I am left not understanding what he is really looking for. I think this is a compelling - absolutely compelling - performance. Like an experienced teacher guiding one to see previously unnoticed ideas and details, or symmetries and asymmetries in a complex piece of architecture, Diana Boyle helps the listener understand intellectually and feel emotionally the intense life within one of Bach's most thoughtful and astringent pieces of writing. And she makes that astringency feel positively rich, with her wide range of (yes - sometimes idiosyncratic, but always revealing) dynamics. The key to understanding this performance, I think, lies in her own words (see cover notes) that she had the violin often in mind whilst performing this work. Bach, after all, never stipulated which instrument he was composing this for. This is musical architecture at its highest: and Ms. Boyle reads it very personally and with profound feeling and sincerity, while at the same time faithfully conserving the music's universal quality. This is not the "definitive performance": heaven preserve that such a thing should exist. But it is one of the most exciting and technically excellent interpretations I know. I am grateful for Ms. Boyle's ability to illuminate the music, and would recommend these discs to anyone wanting to be introduced to a new exploration of the musical cathedrals which Bach created.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
There is no questioning Diana Boyle's technical finesse nor whether she has thought long and hard about how to play Bach's Art of Fugue. However, her approach to this work is, for me, shocking and unsettling. She plays with such mooning and and taffy-pulling of phrases and such disparities of touch and dynamics that I had trouble making myself listen through to the end. Such sudden sforzato notes emerge without warning out of a soft dynamic that one wonders if something fell on the piano keyboard. Often her unnecessary accenting of Bach's fugue theme makes a mockery of the work's subtleties, as if she is shouting, 'Here it is again!'. Ends of phrases tend to be tapered in hyperromantic fashion. At times, for no apparent reason, a musical line will subside into near inaudibility only to emerge at an equally odd moment back to its former dynamic. This is clearly not a fault of the engineering -- indeed, the audio engineering is one of this two-CD set's laudable qualities -- but a choice made by the pianist. She has left out the four canons, playing only the contrapuncti, but she does play the right-side-up and upside-down versions of contrapunctus XIII, back-to-back. She leaves the last contrapunctus unfinished just as Bach did.
I had the thought along the way that the spirit of that eccentric of the piano, Vladimir de Pachmann, had been reincarnated. De Pachmann played in such as way as to command unwavering attention because one never knew what strangeness he would commit next. The same applies here. There are those who love 'romanticized' or high individualized Bach and perhaps this set will appeal to them. But I suspect they are in the minority, even including those who love the idiosyncrasies of Glenn Gould's playing.
No recommendation here.
Scott Morrison
I had the thought along the way that the spirit of that eccentric of the piano, Vladimir de Pachmann, had been reincarnated. De Pachmann played in such as way as to command unwavering attention because one never knew what strangeness he would commit next. The same applies here. There are those who love 'romanticized' or high individualized Bach and perhaps this set will appeal to them. But I suspect they are in the minority, even including those who love the idiosyncrasies of Glenn Gould's playing.
No recommendation here.
Scott Morrison
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Shock Bach
16 Jan 2011
There is no questioning Diana Boyle's technical finesse nor whether she has thought long and hard about how to play Bach's Art of Fugue. However, her approach to this work is, for me, shocking and unsettling. She plays with such mooning and and taffy-pulling of phrases and such disparities of touch and dynamics that I had trouble making myself listen through to the end. Such sudden sforzato notes emerge without warning out of a soft dynamic that one wonders if something fell on the piano keyboard. Often her unnecessary accenting of Bach's fugue theme makes a mockery of the work's subtleties, as if she is shouting, 'Here it is again!'. Ends of phrases tend to be tapered in hyperromantic fashion. At times, for no apparent reason, a musical line will subside into near inaudibility only to emerge at an equally odd moment back to its former dynamic. This is clearly not a fault of the engineering -- indeed, the audio engineering is one of this two-CD set's laudable qualities -- but a choice made by the pianist. She has left out the four canons, playing only the contrapuncti, but she does play the right-side-up and upside-down versions of contrapunctus XIII, back-to-back. She leaves the last contrapunctus unfinished just as Bach did.
I had the thought along the way that the spirit of that eccentric of the piano, Vladimir de Pachmann, had been reincarnated. De Pachmann played in such a way as to command unwavering attention because one never knew what strangeness he would commit next. The same applies here. There are those who love 'romanticized' or high individualized Bach and perhaps this set will appeal to them. But I suspect they are in the minority, even including those who love the idiosyncrasies of Glenn Gould's playing.
No recommendation here.
Scott Morrison
I had the thought along the way that the spirit of that eccentric of the piano, Vladimir de Pachmann, had been reincarnated. De Pachmann played in such a way as to command unwavering attention because one never knew what strangeness he would commit next. The same applies here. There are those who love 'romanticized' or high individualized Bach and perhaps this set will appeal to them. But I suspect they are in the minority, even including those who love the idiosyncrasies of Glenn Gould's playing.
No recommendation here.
Scott Morrison
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