Today I listened to Bachs partita in E minor with David Fray and I think he deserves a mention in this thread. I have earlier been unfairly writing him of as a kind of Glen Gould wannabe but I think he's paying is excellent and very personal. He have a plasticity and agogic freedom that feels quite liberating and I also like his tempi .
I just want to say that I like threads like this and @QuasiUnaFantasia recent Chopin thread. It's fun to discuss actual music😊
johanibraaten his Bach concertos are also very good.
Anyone else watching the organ marathon from st. Thomas Church in Leipzig? Thomas Lang is performing Bachs complete organ works in 22 hours.
Thomas Lang is now on the last set of the organ marathon, amazing achievement! For anyone who might not know, st. John's church is the church where Bach worked the largest and last part of his life. He is also buried here. I was here last last weekend myself and attended two musical events.
Well, let's keep the Bach, and Goldbergvariations, going!!!
David Lai Omg man, again, the playing is fantastic and the sound is flawless. I am also going to add that you look pretty cool.
David Lai Fantastic! I love the directness of it. In spots (like Var.3) your sound reminded of Richter's recording of the 48. You have a way of letting the music out. Too often it's trapped in a sea of notes.
[deleted] Thank you!!! The recording was well worth the wait.
Johnstaf Thank you! The unison canon is hard to phrase well. Technically, the right hand has 2 voices that constantly overlap each other, and the left hand has a passage that's very active… I'm glad you found it clear and direct, that was what I was striving for.
David Lai Fantastic performance, no other way to put it. I’ll add that as insanely difficult as some piano repertoire can be, in my books Bach is actually the most difficult music to REALLY nail, either in performance or in a recording studio. Few pianists (and I don’t consider myself one of them) can play Bach. My opinion only, obviously: Bach “exposes” one’s musical aptitude unrelentingly. Bach is unforgiving, a bit like the opening bars of Beethoven’s G major piano concerto, if I may cite a crazy example. If you don’t get pretty much everything exactly “right,” you’re done. YOU may hear lapses in your interpretation and performance of the Goldberg V, but I didn’t!
Absolutely fabulous performance, David - as good as I've ever heard from anyone. Incredibly clear and articulate playing, immaculate voicing, and a deeply musical interpretation. Four stars!
jlg Thank you! I'm already noticing how I can improve the next time I play it. 🙂
jdg78 I'll get the missing star from you next time, LOL. Thank you! 🙂
David Lai There's no missing star - I was grading on a 4 star scale!
jdg78 Haha, cool beans! 🙂
Congratulations, man! Wonderful playing. I listened onlyto the aria and the first 2 variations, and it was splendid.
vagfilm Thank you, hope you enjoy the rest of it! 🙂
Thank you for the joy of Bach and for your lifetime pursuit of the beauty of Bach's music, that you share with us! Bravo, David … BRAVO!!!
motif Thank you! It does feel like an achievement to be able to play this from front to back, repeats included. 🙂
The copyright gods on Youtube were crazy today -- 6 clips from my Goldberg Variations performance were claimed! And one of them, from variation 15, the refenreced Murray Perahia's recording. Though I'm honoured that I was compared to one of my favorite artists, it's still a wrong copyright claim. So I've disputed them all as of this writing.
