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The recording of the WTC, book I, was awarded 5 stars by Musica
the overall result achieved by De Maria is a delightful synthesis of the rationalistic-architectonic reasons of Bach's poetics and a characteristic search for expressivenessAfter having recorded the complete works of Chopin with excellent results, Pietro De Maria begins, with this recording, a challenging course through the music of Bach including the two books of the Wohltemperiertes Klavier and the Goldberg Variations, that is to say the most complex, profound and exciting works ever written for a keyboard instrument.
Although I prefer a harpsichord performance for this repertory (especially that of Gustav Leonhardt), I have always been convinced that the greatness and versatility of Bach's genius can also be brought out adequately by the piano as, in fact, the Venetian pianist demonstrates with this version: actually, many of the Preludes and Fugues in this First Book are not always written appropriately for the harpsichord (it is well known that the term “Klavier” simply means “keyboard”). As the soloist himself duly observes, “some pieces would sound fine played on an organ, others on the intimate, expressive clavichord, and for others, like certain virtuoso preludes, the harpsichord would be right...and then a polyphonic chorus would do justice to some fugues as the Swingle Singers knew well!”
Given these premises, we can say that the overall result achieved by De Maria is a delightful synthesis of the rationalistic-architectonic reasons of Bach's poetics and a characteristic search for expressiveness which translates concretely Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz' famous definition of music (“musica est arithmetica nescientis se numerari animi”). In fact, the absolute rigor and extreme clarity with which the counterpoint is rendered, combines with a truly uncommon care in making the expressive potential (the cantabile) explicit even in the most complex and intricate structures, without ever losing the balance related to each structure (three examples among many: the great Fugue in C sharp minor, the extraordinary, touching Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor, the meditative and introspective Prelude and Fugue in F minor). In this sense, the infinitesimal dosage of the dynamics, the calibrated diversification of the sound levels (especially in the Fugues) the use of the pedal, the crescendos and diminuendos, the variety and the fluidity of the agogic choices, even the choice of timbre have been elaborated to highlight and support accurately the specific character of each single page without any display of effects. As I have already suggested, equally admirable is the clarity with which even the more complex Fugues are resolved, fully emphasizing the entries of the various voices to bring out the structure, but without undue emphasis (a result made possible through calibrated use of the pedal). Especially remarkable is the attention given to the ornamentation, (derived from original sources), made not only by taking into account the Urtext editions, but also by comparing the different manuscripts that have come down to us, with particular regard for the copies of Anna Magdalena, the son-in-law Altnikol, and the student Kirnberger, in the belief that “much of the ornamentation not found in Bach's manuscript was probably added by Bach himself to the copies of his students while he was giving them lessons”. Not one single accent, then, has been left to chance, each solution has been filtered through lucid textual and stylistic analysis, which confirms an admirable seriousness of purpose and a complete command of Bach's language.
The high quality of the recording combines with the wealth of instruments, including the ample and precise informative notes (also in Italian) signed by Nicola Cattò and De Maria himself.
Claudio Bolzan, Musica, May 2015
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