Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51513 in Music
• Brand: Bach
• Released on: 2000-06-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
A lot of pianophiles have been waiting for the reissue of this 1980 LP, Argerich's only Bach recording. She played the same Partita at her Carnegie Hall recital in the Spring of 2000, suggesting that she just doesn't play much Bach. These performances have the pianist's typical intensity of approach. Her fingers do the talking, with some dazzling clear articulation reminiscent of Glenn Gould on a good day, and she seldom blurs any of the textures. She also has a very good feeling for Bach's dance rhythms; the closing Gigue of the Partita makes you want to jump up and put on your dancing shoes. Argerich uses an unusually wide dynamic range for Bach, and some of the dreamy slow movements won't be to the taste of all listeners. Nobody, though, will be able to ignore these performances; while they are playing, they seem like the only way to do it. The 1980 sound is still fine, and although the disc is LP length (50 minutes), the price is right. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews

more... please!
It's usually much more difficult to play Bach on the piano than on the harpsichord. Very few pianists are able to give convincing interpretations that can stand the test of time. They need to have good fingers, great intellect, an intuitive sense of rhythm, clear and clean sound production, a style suited to the music of Bach, and an awareness of the grand musical structure in his music. They also need the greatest sensitivity for harmonies and colors. Martha Argerich has all of those qualities and more. In her Bach, there is an intensity and drama that are rarely heard. She creates powerful and vivid characterization and impressions with the greatest economy, without ever doubly underlining anything. Magical and dramatic moments are often in fact produced by no more than a slightest shading or a subtlest rubato. The secret lies in the concentration. This is music making that challenges your mind! You can sense that Argerich has a most fastidious and serious attitude when playing Bach. Everything is so thoroughly thought out and prepared with the best care and the best musical taste and judgement. Miraculously, she still sounds effortless and natural. She achieves the divine simplicity, the final seal of arts. This recording will grow on you and accompany you like a faithful friend. It's like a mystical treasure in which you always discover new things and insights.

Having said all that, I also have a small complaint! The length of this recording is very short (50'16)- one of the shortest in DG's "The Originals" legendary recordings series. Perhaps there is nothing the record company could do. This is all they had when Argerich recorded the LP in 1979. What a pity! This recording has been unanimously acclaimed as soon as it was released, and one would think that it should have encouraged Argerich to record more solo works of Bach. But that's not the case. One must settle instead for listening to the only other studio recording of Bach she made - the Cello Sonatas with Mischa Maisky. I find myself listening to these two CD's very often. They are stimulating when you listen to them intently, but they are a soothing companion for my book reading too!

Argerich's purism and poetry in Bach is UNSURPASSABLE!
Martha Argerich is an absolute winner in Bach. Surpsingly so in some ways but not totally so: The maximum fingercontrol/clarity/artýculaion makes a Bach recording that one can easly call DEFINITIVE, a term that nobody dared to use for Argerich before. Not even the most 'purist' listener will be able to say "This is not Bach,it's Argerich"(BTW,listen to her new EMI concert recordings of the same tracks and you will be amazed to see the difference between the wilder/ truly 'Argerich' concert approach and this calmer and more Bach-like studio approach: She is simply someone else in the studio!..) Yet,in this studio recording righly reissued in the Deutsche Gramaphone's LEGENDARY RECORDÝNGS series,one can also guess that such a natural sounding poetry, such a 'color-range',such an elegence and beauty cannot be anyone but Martha Argerich. This is how the purist approach Bach should be ideally. Having listened to Richter's(Well-tempered), Gould's(well-tempered)and a few others' Bach, Argerich's recording reminds me of Plato's cave parable.

One of the most extraordinary classical recordings ever
I first heard this recording over twenty years ago in a small, dusty apartment in Tel Aviv. As a serious piano student, I was accomplished in playing Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. In fact, Glenn Gould's piano rendition of Book One was the first album I ever purchased. I was familiar with Gould's Bach interpretation, and when my Israeli friend heard my praise, he went to his cupboard and produced this recording. "You've never heard Bach played like this," he said, smiling wistfully. He played the LP and the room was suddenly alive with the internal joy and rhythmic nuance that only the best Bach performers can capture. Over the years, I have returned to this recording for creative inspiration as it sounds as fresh and vital on the thousandth hearing as the first. There is intelligence, wonder and extraordinary musicality in Argerich's technique inspired by the composer's crafty genius. She is a wonder.