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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Is it only the bad quality of recording?
Comment: The quality of the recording is very bad indeed. Above all there is a terrible resonance effect, and also the timbre is awful. But it isn't only this. There is something else for me, very important. It seems to me that the piano sustaining pedal is used very much, almost always. When Richter take away fingers and feet, the sound "aura" that remains is by far much less, and not only at the end of the peice, where could came into the work of sound engineer. That's also typical of the romantic school that Richter represent... And that, playng Bach, would be really unbearable! On the other hand, otherwise, he would had never approved this recording for issuing. The recording I'm talking about is the Salzburg 1970 one of the first book of the work (that I bought fotunately low price with a classic music magazine) and I'm sure enough is the same of this cd set.
Post Scriptum: And the torn, destroyed and burned score on the cover what is it? A freudian slip (lapsus), a provocation (they are "screwing around" us) or what?
If you don't like Glenn Gould Bach, listen Martha Argerich Bach (Toccata BWV 911, Patita BWV 826, Englishe suite No.2 BWV 807, last two in particular) or Dinu Lipatti (partita No.1)... And learn.
Ah... RICHTER SAID HIMSELF in an interview that the best Well tempered clavier is the Glenn Gould one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great encounter-Richter and Bach
Comment: This interpretation of WTC should forever reinforce the notion of Bach's piano music as the most sublime integration of musical intellectual vigour and sheer poetry. It took player of Richter's genius to achieve such task. A desert island piano playing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the finest sets available
Comment: While some of the criticisms made of this set are valid (the sound can be a bit distant here & there,)overall, this is one of the finest recordings of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier currently available. Richter is extraordinary in these pieces. I expected the precise virtuosity, but have been even more taken by the emotional depth the Russian master shows on this four cd set from RCA. Many perfomances of these works can be technically perfect, but quite dry, revealing little feeling (Gould comes to mind for me.) Not so with Richter. This is a wonderful set to add to your cd library, even with the very minor imperfections in the sound quality. What an exceptional performance by one of the greatest pianists of the 20th Century!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Some Bach for my desert island
Comment: I love the way the Russian school plays Bach (Richter, Gilels, Nikolayeva, etc.), and particularly this Russian, and these performances. The opening Prelude and Fugue I of Book I is one of most magical keyboard works that I have ever heard, and Richter's playing of it is other worldly--it is incredible. Too many notable Bach pianists--Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Kempff among them--simply rush through this piece, destroying it's profound inner beauty. I have never understood why they do this. Perhaps they are trying to approach the music from the standpoint of a harpsichordist--in order to sound less romantic, but even on a harpsichord it works better at a slower tempo, at least, to my sensibility. Suffice it to say that Richter just gets it right, and more so than anyone that I have ever heard.
As for the rest of the Well-Tempered Clavier--it is some of the most towering and influential keyboard music ever written, and essential in any collection. Beethoven loved this music so much that he copied out fugues from it into his sketchbooks. While Pablo Casals called it the "foundation of music."
And now for the bad news, the recorded sound here--despite the high quality of Richter's playing--isn't all that great. However, if you can find a 2002 Japanese/ RCA release, it sounds better than this. There is also a more recent 2007 Japanese release, but I have not heard this yet. (But be warned that a Japanese issue from approximately 8-10 years ago is terrible, with the piano sounding as if it was recorded in a tunnel--and no, it is not all due to Richter's use of the pedal). If you can't locate a current Japanese release (try Cd Japan), I would alternately recommend trying to find a long out of print issue from the French "Le Chant de Monde" label. This is probably the best version of all soundwise, and is far superior to the RCA effort.
(EDIT: I recently saw a picture of the 2007 Japanese release mentioned above, and it had the same identical cover as the Japanese set that I bought some 8-10 years ago, and was so disappointed with--in other words, it may be the same release, and if so, I would stay away from it. However, I also noticed that there is a new Japanese release scheduled to come out in October, 2008, which will be a remastering of the original recordings using the new SHM technology. Thus far, the few CDs that I have bought which use this technology have been excellent, and hopefully, this 2008 release will be the new version of choice sound-wise. Check out Amazon.co.jp or cdjapan in October, 2008, or pre-order now.)
If I could give these performances more than five stars I would; certainly this level of pianism is so rare that it deserves many more. People who think that Richter is overrated should have a listen to these performances; I think they will see what all the fuss is about.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The very best performance of WTC
Comment: Having listening to more than a dozen recordings of WTC played with piano,
I have to say Richter's rendition is one of the few I love best. Technical virtuosity, melodic fluency, contrapuntal precision, and musical depth are perfectly combined here. Even the tempos could not be better handled. The only thing I find not so good about this rendition is that Richter seems to have used too much petal, making the sound blurring at times. Even so, I stronly recommend this recording on grounds of its artistic value and relevation.
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