Rating: 3/5
Review:
Hasn't aged well
Maria Joao Pires is a magnificent pianist whose recordings
of Chopin's Nocturnes and Schubert's Impromptus are among my most treasured
discs. This disc of three Bach
concertos, originally issued in 1976, is not in the same league as her later
recordings for me.
Pires herself plays excellently; she has beautiful tone and
a lovely touch. The orchestral work is
pretty stodgy, though, and lacks almost all of the suppleness and spring which
informs so many more recent recordings and really brings Bach's music to
light. Tempi are generally slow and are
positively funereal in some of the slower movements - which Pires deals with by
introducing some rather Romantic-sounding phrasing in places, most notably in
the adagio of BWV1052, for example, (which lasts over 9 minutes!). It just doesn't really sound like Bach to me,
however lovely her playing.
In short, this is a recording which has not aged well.
However much I respect Maria Joao Pires and love her other recordings, I much
prefer Murray Perahia or Angela Hewitt for Bach keyboard concertos on the
piano. This is only OK, and I can't really recommend it.
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