CD Review
CD Review The piece that I listened to for my piano listening assignment is a piece that I know and love. I conducted it last year with the GMU Chamber Orchestra and Min Son who is currently a piano student in the GMU School of Music. The piece is Bach's Piano Concerto in D minor, specifically the first movement. I did make it a point to listen to three recordings that I had not heard of it so I could get a new experience while listening to a piece that I already knew. The three recordings all contrasted in many different ways. The first recording that I listened to was of Anton Heller playing the piece on Harpsichord with chamber orchestra, The second recording I listened to was on YouTube and it was Glenn Gould playing the piano with string orchestra, and the third recording I listened to was of a 10 year old girl named Sophia playing it with a string quartet. All of the recordings including the "Sophia" recording were great. The piece itself is certainly not easy and it was quite amazing to see a girl who's feet barely touched the ground play it and play it very well. The one thing I did not like about the Sophia recording was that the orchestra was fine it just didn't work very well for me that they were a quartet. The other two recordings I had full chamber orchestra and it was much more effective with a full chamber orchestra. The Glenn Gould recording was very old, I couldn't find the year but it seemed very early in his career. The tempo he took was very slow compared to the other two recordings but his musical phrasing and overall playing was by far the best from the three recordings that i listened to. He tended to play with the tempo a lot and that is generally not what happens in a Bach piece but somehow Gould made it work to his advantage and made true music out of what is already a masterpiece on paper. The last recording that I listened to was Anton Heller playing the movement on Harpsichord which it was originally played written for and it was a quite good recording. Out of the three the orchestra was by far the best and Heller's technical performance was outstanding but his musical interpretation was the most standard and generic of all of them. I know it's much more difficult/impossible to play dynamics on a harpsichord but overall his interpretation was lacking. Overall it was very interesting to listen to and compare three very different approaches to one great piece of music. I think all three were a success and I look forward to listening to many more different recordings.

9/30/09
by marshallvjones
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