Tír Na HiFi

fergus wrote:

Seán wrote:

fergus wrote:Christmas Oratorio Part 2....

Fergus, what do you make of that recording? I listened to Part 1 and Part 2 last night. I liked it but it's very difficult to judge the quality of a recording when one is listening to it over the net.

It was one of my very early purchases Seán and from a time when I did not know of the Period Instrument approach to this type of music. It is a recording of its time. It is very different in its approach to any of the cycles in your collection. It, as ever, comes down to taste and how you like these things done. I find it "old school" in the sense that it is a "big band" approach to Bach. Now some like this very much but I prefer the (somewhat) leaner approach so that I can hear absolutely everything that is going on there because, as you are finding out yourself, there can be so much happening in Bach's music. It certainly is a good performance and it is interesting from a comparison point of view which is why I have kept it for all of these years. Good but different!!

Seán wrote:Fergus, I see that you're "holding the fort", good man.

mcq wrote: Nope, I just have the cycle with Colin Davis. The sonata cycle he recorded for EMI is a modern classic in my opinion, Fergus. One of his biggest influences was the great Wilhelm Backhaus (whose cycle on Decca remains my all-time favourite) and, like Backhaus, he favours a physical, direct approach to the music. Some people find his playing aggressive, but I think it's simply an emotional approach to the music. I have to single out his performance of the Hammerklavier in particular. It's one of the very finest I've ever heard, and second only to Backhaus's masterly recording. It is interesting to note that, in Kovacevich's opinion, Backhaus was the only pianist who ever really understood the Hammerklavier.

fergus wrote:

mcq wrote: Nope, I just have the cycle with Colin Davis. The sonata cycle he recorded for EMI is a modern classic in my opinion, Fergus. One of his biggest influences was the great Wilhelm Backhaus (whose cycle on Decca remains my all-time favourite) and, like Backhaus, he favours a physical, direct approach to the music. Some people find his playing aggressive, but I think it's simply an emotional approach to the music. I have to single out his performance of the Hammerklavier in particular. It's one of the very finest I've ever heard, and second only to Backhaus's masterly recording. It is interesting to note that, in Kovacevich's opinion, Backhaus was the only pianist who ever really understood the Hammerklavier.

I am afraid to say that I have not heard of Backhaus!!!