On WTC Recordings

Awhile back somewhere I recommended the Friedrich Gulda recording on Phillips (two Phillips Duos) for the best all-around recording on piano of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. After recently listening to several different recordings again of that work I've come to the same conclusion. The Gulda recording is under-appreciated and possibly, when all things are weighed in the balance, the best recording/performance of Bach's WTC.

As time has gone by I am even willing to admit that my initial assessment of the hard-to-find Samuel Feinberg recording is not as breathtakingly great as I (and most other less amateur critics) concluded when it first came out of the Soviet archives.

Recently I've listened to the Richter, the Gould, and the Feinberg, and now the Gulda again. The Gould even left me less impressed than I've been in the past with what he was doing with this work. (Maybe I'm jaded, but I don't think so...)

Gulda doesn't, at first, bowl you over in any way, yet he has seemed to age better than the others (if Richter had been better served by recording engineers he would reign supreme). I've noticed over the years that the professional critics have also conceded that Gulda's recording is better than they'd initially thought and written.

So, anyone reading this who followed my recommendation on getting the Gulda recording got, in my now reinforced original assessment, a very good, standard, quietly inspired, recording...