Eh bien, vous n'êtes pas trop difficile ! Il est vrai que les trop rares autres versions sont tellement décevantes (chacune dans son style) que par défaut ce serait la moinsse pire.
Zhu Xiao-mei Performs with crystalline clarity every note. The tempo is slow one can hear the beauty of each note. There is no photograph of the pianist. It would be nice to watch her emotions.
Masterfful interpretation of the AOF. She sees the whole, the architecture of each component of the OAF, including this truncated Contrapunctus. I don't know about clavier or organ interpretations of the AOF, but for my taste, these interpretations are unequaled. Calls to mind Richter's WTC 1, especially the slow fugues. Or Feinberg's WTC 2. Neither pianist recorded the OAF. But now we have a BIG lacuna filled: a great interpretation of this conceptually difficult music. Beautifully recorded, too.
My name is Yoshiki Chayama living in Japan. I bought your CD of BWV1080 (The Art of Fuge). I like the last work of Bach more than any thing. It moves me incredibly. Could please play BWV 668 (coral prelude) that is often played with 1080 in various CD's. The piece is combination of major and minor and at the end of the music, it leads me to happiness and sorrow, but I think BWV 668 is the music of heaven. I play the classical guitar, and I want to arrange the piece for the guitar, but it is impossible for me to do so. I think BWV 1080 is completed with BWV 668 at the end. Again, could you please the piece on TH-cam of your new CD? I look forward to it from my deepest heart. Thank you,
- gives thumbs down only if you can play better and please post your playing to prove it - I find her playing replicates an organ like sonority the recent pierre aimard laurent recording by contrast is more austere, a little harder to appreciate - btw, she plays the voices clearly & I heard subjects I did not hear in other recordings this is a winner mxncb
Gould was wonderful in performance of Bach's works but Zhu Xiao-Mei can be of a different matter and to be genious too. The sound of her soul is resoning too in her playing. It's moving. Why to make that kind of cleavage ?
Gould would not give a fellow performer a thumbs down (although he used he and Horowitz occasionally poked fun at each other). It wouldn't have been in keeping with his line of thinking.
Tempi rapides mais acceptables sur les 2 premiers sujets; fugues bien marquées; du relief, sauf à 6'13 où elle a complètement zappé l'accentuation que tant d'autres ont bien su marquer à juste titre. Le 3° sujet est complètement loupé; la transition 2°-3° sujet est tellement essentielle avec la rupture de tempo et d'esprit qu'elle comporte qu'attaquer le 3° dans la continuité du 2° apparait comme une énorme erreur là ou tout n'est que mystère et recueillement métaphysique. Incompréhensible et condamnable.
While the sincerity is admirable, I find that the stressed and unstressed beats/notes are often played opposite to how they should be (metrical hierarchy/dissonance VS consonance). If you compare this music to rhetoric the syntax sounds problematic.
I'm not sure I agree there. Even if there would be some artistic freedom used in the interpretation of the score and the execution of the performance, I question the notion that the interpretation should therefor be considered problematic. Instead of analysing the crap out of technicalities, I prefer to take in the whole. And the whole, to me, presents a thoroughly engaging and moving performance of the Art of Fugue, capturing the spirit of Bach in all its abstract wonder. And judging by the many positive reviews to be found online, it seems I'm not the only one holding that opinion.
Yves Cooreman Personally I just find that there're too many blemishes both in technique and musical treatment for the performance to be convincing. When she rings out a subject other voices often go into complete oblivion; some subjects disappear altogether half way when there's a stretto and another voice enters. One can often hear the shifting of hands in complex textures and again certain voices are sacrificed. I would think that more careful work on voicing is needed for this work. There's also a misreading of the sources at bar 77 on the first beat of the bass line, where she played an E-flat instead of the E-natural. There are no alternatives in the sources so this is most probably a misreading. Again, I don't mean to 'object' to other people's enjoyment of this performance, but was rather trying to articulate why I am one of those who would give this performance a thumbs down.
Henry, it took me years to appreciate, that what Bach does is very like MC Escher. Read Hofstader's book on Goedel Escher Bach. Bach always plays with what we perceive is there. He plays with the figure ground/ relationship. His music theory operates at the deepest level. Often he leaves out a voice at just the time we expect a resolution of a tension or writes the score such that two voices occupy the same note (unison),...Xiao -Mei reveals many of these secret places in Bach, that don't appear to be there ! As with Gould pure genius ! metrical rules of harmony be damned!
Absolument merveilleux sa lecture de Bach. C'est sublime ; à la hauteur même de cette musique.
Eh bien, vous n'êtes pas trop difficile ! Il est vrai que les trop rares autres versions sont tellement décevantes (chacune dans son style) que par défaut ce serait la moinsse pire.
Peu importe l'instrumentation, quelle est votre version préférée ?
Totalmente de acuerdo, la interpretación es muy bella mostrando la filosofía de Tao-tsé presente
Stunning & dazzling. No word beyond.
Zhu Xiao-mei Performs with crystalline clarity every note. The tempo is slow one can hear the beauty of each note. There is no photograph of the pianist. It would be nice to watch her emotions.
Who is she? Would like to know more of her musical background.
the tao of bach
Masterfful interpretation of the AOF. She sees the whole, the architecture of each component of the OAF, including this truncated Contrapunctus. I don't know about clavier or organ interpretations of the AOF, but for my taste, these interpretations are unequaled. Calls to mind Richter's WTC 1, especially the slow fugues. Or Feinberg's WTC 2. Neither pianist recorded the OAF. But now we have a BIG lacuna filled: a great interpretation of this conceptually difficult music. Beautifully recorded, too.
I do agree for Richter (I like Zhu Xiao Mei too, and her terrible life history)
@@Fanfanbalibar I bet she would not agree her life history was terrible.
My name is Yoshiki Chayama living in Japan. I bought your CD of BWV1080 (The Art of Fuge). I like the last work of Bach more than any thing. It moves me incredibly. Could please play BWV 668 (coral prelude) that is often played with 1080 in various CD's. The piece is combination of major and minor and at the end of the music, it leads me to happiness and sorrow, but I think BWV 668 is the music of heaven. I play the classical guitar, and I want to arrange the piece for the guitar, but it is impossible for me to do so. I think BWV 1080 is completed with BWV 668 at the end. Again, could you please the piece on TH-cam of your new CD? I look forward to it from my deepest heart. Thank you,
let's leave that to a performer's choice. I personally like it without it.
Henry chow points out some small subjective elements in her playing . Her playing is glorious! my great discovery for 2016
Bach music is Universal, it have no gender, ethnicity, or faith.
A Return Transformed
this is the last, the 14th. it is a return to the beginning, a return to Source.
behold the limit of ALL music
i love it is so good
love her AOF, less so her Goldberg Variations.
- gives thumbs down only if you can play better
and please post your playing to prove it
- I find her playing replicates an organ like sonority
the recent pierre aimard laurent recording by contrast is more austere, a little harder to appreciate
- btw, she plays the voices clearly & I heard subjects I did not hear in other recordings
this is a winner
mxncb
So Gould could give a thumb down if he wanted to(, if he was still alive).
Gould was wonderful in performance of Bach's works but Zhu Xiao-Mei can be of a different matter and to be genious too. The sound of her soul is resoning too in her playing. It's moving. Why to make that kind of cleavage ?
Gould would not give a fellow performer a thumbs down (although he used he and Horowitz occasionally poked fun at each other). It wouldn't have been in keeping with his line of thinking.
hi
Tempi rapides mais acceptables sur les 2 premiers sujets; fugues bien marquées; du relief, sauf à 6'13 où elle a complètement zappé l'accentuation que tant d'autres ont bien su marquer à juste titre. Le 3° sujet est complètement loupé; la transition 2°-3° sujet est tellement essentielle avec la rupture de tempo et d'esprit qu'elle comporte qu'attaquer le 3° dans la continuité du 2° apparait comme une énorme erreur là ou tout n'est que mystère et recueillement métaphysique. Incompréhensible et condamnable.
How anyone can give this a thumbs down is beyond me.
While the sincerity is admirable, I find that the stressed and unstressed beats/notes are often played opposite to how they should be (metrical hierarchy/dissonance VS consonance). If you compare this music to rhetoric the syntax sounds problematic.
I'm not sure I agree there. Even if there would be some artistic freedom used in the interpretation of the score and the execution of the performance, I question the notion that the interpretation should therefor be considered problematic. Instead of analysing the crap out of technicalities, I prefer to take in the whole. And the whole, to me, presents a thoroughly engaging and moving performance of the Art of Fugue, capturing the spirit of Bach in all its abstract wonder. And judging by the many positive reviews to be found online, it seems I'm not the only one holding that opinion.
Yves Cooreman
well said.
Yves Cooreman
Personally I just find that there're too many blemishes both in technique and musical treatment for the performance to be convincing. When she rings out a subject other voices often go into complete oblivion; some subjects disappear altogether half way when there's a stretto and another voice enters. One can often hear the shifting of hands in complex textures and again certain voices are sacrificed. I would think that more careful work on voicing is needed for this work. There's also a misreading of the sources at bar 77 on the first beat of the bass line, where she played an E-flat instead of the E-natural. There are no alternatives in the sources so this is most probably a misreading.
Again, I don't mean to 'object' to other people's enjoyment of this performance, but was rather trying to articulate why I am one of those who would give this performance a thumbs down.
Henry, it took me years to appreciate, that what Bach does is very like MC Escher. Read Hofstader's book on Goedel Escher Bach. Bach always plays with what we perceive is there. He plays with the figure ground/ relationship. His music theory operates at the deepest level. Often he leaves out a voice at just the time we expect a resolution of a tension or writes the score such that two voices occupy the same note (unison),...Xiao -Mei reveals many of these secret places in Bach, that don't appear to be there ! As with Gould pure genius ! metrical rules of harmony be damned!