LATEST RELEASE! Bach The Well Tempered Clavier, Book
II The latest in Sheppard's highly acclaimed Bach series, recorded live in Seattle's Meany Theater in April, 2008. A must for all Bach collectors and connoisseurs of this great repertoire.
Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier
Book Two, BWV870-893 Craig
Sheppardpf Roméo Records (F) (2)
7269/70 (153' DDD)
Impressive pinpoint
accuracy in readings which get even better with each listen
Craig Sheppard's intense concentration and pinpoint accuracy
throughout the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 impress all the
more when one considers that these are live recordings. Many of the
Preludes reveal the lyrical, legato Bach style that Sheppard
purports to favour these days, from the C Major's grandiosity and F
minor's dulcet, episodic trajectory to the A minor's sharply
characterised chromatic movement and the graceful, rounded A flat. I
especially love the cello-like phrasing with which Sheppard brings the
tenor voice to the fore in his gorgeously lit D sharp major Prelude,
while his unusually brisk, vividly accented account of the G sharp minor
Fugue differs from the measured sobriety we often hear.
Yet plenty of dry, détaché,
non-legato playing abounds. Sometimes Sheppard serves it up with
intimacy and humour, such as in the conversational repartee he evokes in
the G major Prelude and Fugue.
His unusually brisk, vividly accented account differs
from the measured sobriety we often hear
Conversely, the A minor Fugue's
exaggerated staccato is hard to bear and all but impossible to sustain
at Sheppard's overly slow tempo. And a wider dynamic compass might have
made the G minor Prelude's dotted rhythms sound far less static and
rigid. But these are minor quibbles. Sheppard's intelligence, commitment
and formidable contrapuntal acumen pay further dividends upon relistening. I should also mention the excellent engineering, plus the
pianist's own booklet-notes that address Book 2's interesting musical
and scholarly loose ends.
Jed Distler
International Record Review
February 2009
J. S. Bach Das wohltemperierte Clavier – Book 2, BWV870-93. Craig Sheppard
(piano). Roméo Records 7269-70 (full price, two discs, 2 hours 33
minutes). Website www.romeorecords.com Producer / Engineer
Dmitriy Lipay. Dates Live performances at Meany Theater, Seattle on
April 21st and 23rd, 2008.
During the past few years, Romeo
Records has issued a number of CDs by Craig Sheppard that have received
high international acclaim. They include an outstanding set of the
Beethoven Piano Sonatas, which I was pleased to review for this journal
in February 2006, as well as sets of Bach's six Partitas and the first
book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. This last issue was enthusiastically
reviewed by my colleague Patrick Rucker in January 2008, and almost all
of what he said 1 could just as readily reprint here in discussing
Sheppard's account of Book 2.
This is Bach playing of a very high
order on the piano, and before readers start to complain about the
choice of instrument, I would remind them of what one of the finest Bach
scholars of the last century, Basil Lam, once said of the master's
music: 'You can play Bach on a clothes-line with a few pegs and it would
still come out as great music.' I have sat through stylistically
impeccable performances of Bach on the clavichord and harpsichord which
have reduced his music to the level of Telemann. What we experience in
Sheppard's playing (as we also do with a few other artists who play Bach
oil the piano) is – and here I do quote PR – that it is 'essentially
lyrical, sparing of pedal, deeply considered and obviously seasoned
through long-term intimacy. Most importantly, these interpretations
emanate from the heart.' They do indeed.
It is not merely a
question Of instrumental timbre but of musical intellect. Throughout
these records Sheppard takes no liberties with die music, and from the
beginning of this really distinguished traversal of Book 2 we are drawn
into this artist's compelling view of Bach on the piano. Each of these
preludes and fugues is given with no little sense of individual
character (as PR also noted, though without using the meiosis I chose),
and I do not propose to go through all 24 individually. Suffice it to
say that, apart from playing these discs quite a few times over several
weeks, I found myself, on checking one or other point, unwilling to
remove the disc from the player without listening again to the
succeeding prelude and fugue – Sheppard's playing is consistent in his
compelling musicianship.
To give you a greater idea of what is at
stake here, I must mention his superbly flexible approach to the C major
Prelude with its attendant Fugue, so full of life but always controlled;
the wonderful first repeat of the C minor Prelude and the excellent
control of the static movement of the semiquaver figures at bars 13 and
15 in the same Prelude. Initially, in the succeeding Fugue, I felt a
more legato exposition of the subject would have been preferable, but as
the music progresses, and four parts become engaged, the character of
the piece changes the nature of the subject in a way that convinced me
that Sheppard was right and I was wrong. The clarity of his part-playing
is wholly admirable throughout and in terms of characterization the
change to the fughetta-like coda of the C sharp major Prelude is
delightfully accomplished.
In terms of scholarship, there is much
to admire and stimulate here, as those of us who have lived with one
edition for many years will understand. For example, in the C sharp
minor Prelude, Sheppard adds a mordent on the first F sharp in the bass
(not in Tovey's edition, but in the Bärenteiter - I believe - which
makes more musical sense): and so on; his tempos and voicing are quite
enthralling and, in almost every instance, utterly convincing. As in
earlier Romeo issues, Sheppard provides his own scholarly and literate
booklet notes. Having drawn your attention to some of the details which
have captivated me, I find myself almost unable to drag myself away from
the profound musicianship this fine artist consistently displays. I urge
you to investigate this for yourselves.
Hans Keller once said
that all great artists, by the very nature of their functioning, are
teachers. Sheppard is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor of Piano
at the School of Music of the University of Washington in Seattle, and
his students are indeed fortunate to have such an artist as their
teacher. I have left the most remarkable aspect of this release to last:
these are live performances, given in concert; the audience is silent
throughout, until, at the end of No. 12 (presumably an interval was
to follow) and (of course) No. 24, they gave this artist the full
appreciation his performances so deeply merit, and in which we may join.
Robert Matthew-Walker
MusicWeb International Review
I reviewed Book I of Craig Sheppard’s traversal of The Well Tempered Clavier about a year ago. That was recorded in April 2007. Book II followed a year later. And so with almost inevitable symmetry I review Book II almost a year after it was recorded, as ever in the Meany Theatre, Seattle. The central issues I located in Book I are reprised here and loath though I am to quote myself so consistent and remarkable is Sheppard’s playing that it seems apposite; the salient features of his playing include a thorough absorption of editorial concerns, a concern for clarity of articulation, a determination to let the music take wing and yet to explore gravity with appropriate weight. To that end he never over pedals, and his touch encourages kaleidoscopic, shifting patterns to emerge but never to obscure the contrapuntal or harmonic nature of the music’s direction.
The uncanny thing in his playing is the sense of rightness of every tempo decision, the rhythmic propulsion that underlies it, the logic that is part of his arching schema, the voicings, and the acute and judicious pedalling. The result is an absorbing illustration of a kind of synthesis between heart and mind, between thorough study and absorption of stylistic models, and of pragmatic decision-making. It’s the kind of playing that I would characterise as non-intercessionary. It sweeps you up in the directional arrow of its music making and casts you onwards.
One can merely listen to the unselfconscious warmth of phrasing of the Prelude in C major, the exquisitely weighted control and dynamic shading that follow in ensuing Preludes; the vitality and clarity of articulation of the Prelude in D minor; the gravity of the Fugue in E major; the freedom and joyfulness that emanate from the F major Fugue. Similarly there is a culminatory sense of magnificent eloquence in the F sharp minor Fugue and a surety of direction – something that applies throughout of course, but this is a particular example of it – in the Prelude in B
flat minor.
There are, in fact, no abrasive issues with this performance. The recording is, as is usual with this source, quite up-front but it didn’t disturb me. This two disc set represents another triumph for a musician who never parades or shows off, who devotes himself to the truth as he finds it and who abjures all extraneous and slick gestures in its pursuit.