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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
It's a shame Brendel has not recorded more Bach, for, as this recording shows, he has both the mental clarity and the deftness of touch that characterises some of the great modern interpreters. His Italian Concerto is wonderfully fluid, his Chromatic Fantasia thrilling and intense. Yet the real gems on the disc are the two Busoni transcriptions of Bach choral preludes for the organ. Here Brendel plays with a magical solemnity that I have yet to hear matched on any recording of these works. My only criticism (and hence only the four stars) is Brendel's tendency to 'over-pedal' to the extent that on more than one occasion the detail and finesse of his playing seem to get lost in a haze.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars
10 reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An incredible collection
20 Nov 2003
By Gulley Jimson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
Brendel is an incredible pianist, and a scholar of music as much as a virtuouso. This is a beautifully played and beautifully CHOSEN collection of music. In an interview included in the notes, Brendel points out that many of Bach's works seem to be written for instruments of the future: some pieces like the Chromatic Fantasy seem to be failures as written for the harpsichord but are wonderful played on the piano.
I don't miss whatever authenticity might be lost, then, by playing these on the piano. I loved how simple it was to hear the different strands of melody that wind their way around each other in the first movement of the Italian Concerto, and to hear how clearly Brendel articulated the rushing melody of the Prelude in A Minor. He's amazing: I started with his recordings of Schubert but am starting to prefer his versions of Beethoven and Bach as well.
Even his choices of what to play are revelatory. The Busoni arrangement of Ich 'ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ is astounding. It was only after I ran out, got a book of the Busoni arrangements and tried to play the prelude myself that I realized how hard it was to play this (technically) fairly simple piece as beautifully and delicately as Brendel plays it.
Anyone who thinks that Bach is a dry, academic composer - or who wrote music that is coldly beautiful but not heartfelt - needs to hear these three minutes of music to know how much love went into everything he wrote.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brendel Plays Back
27 Aug 2001
By Nichomachus
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
A treat of Bach's most innovative piano works. The Fantasia and the two Fantasia & Fugues are powerfully played. Brendel has a very consistent and rounded sound, yet he plays Bach with an original and sparkling flair. He captures much intensity with these pieces without succumbing to eccentricity.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brendal plays Bach...brilliantly
15 Jun 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
Although many purists may have their doubts about the suitability of playing Bach's keyboard works on the modern piano, in this instance there is no question of the success of the performance. It's stunning. It is definitely 'Brendal' playing Bach as he makes sure that each piece is defined by his own personal combination of great virtuosity and profound interpretation. The intensely powerful rendering of the 'Chromatic Fanatasia' is worth the price of the disc alone and the other fantasias are similarly astounding. For the interaction of sheer concentration of thought with deep-felt feeling this is a disc which fan of Bach or Brendal should be without. Classics of the keyboard repertoire played by one of the greatest pianists of the century..go and buy.
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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