I really admire his easiness at playing! His fingers move so light as if there was no obstacle, no physical barrier between notes and chords. (I'm a pianist)
I watched this after watching Schiff's 2013 YT performance, and conclude that Gulda has won my heart. The first 3 minutes was a bit faster than I cared for, but the amazing change about 3 minutes in - those thunderous organic chords ! continuing to the end of the Fantasy. And the fugue was perfect.
I love the precision of the fugue. And he gets so absorbed in the fugue, like Gould used to do. It's almost like he is just watching his hands playing by themselves. And while it something probably only a pianist would notice, his pedaling is superb.
"Not only does he not hum" LOL! That reminds me of a programme I heard on BBC 4 years ago, where a presenter said that a Gould recorded had once been introduced on the radio with the words, "Bach's English Suites, played by Glenn Gould, piano and vocals".
The Scarlatti like Fantasy is so unlike Bach, one could almost believe it was written by someone else, like perhaps one of his students. But the fugue! The fugue practically screams "Bach!".
Je ne sais plus combien de fois j'ai écouté cette fantaisie chromatique et fugue de Bach. Une splendeur en soi au niveau de la composition. Les versions sont innombrables j'en connais quelques unes que je place pour ma part parmi les meilleures, mais tout cela est très subjectif. En fin de compte, je me tourne toujours vers cette interprétation de Gulda qui est magnifique.
Just one thing for the ones who denigrate this performance. Gulda was one of the top pianists of that period . The counterpoint in the fugue, despite the fastness, is perfect. As a Bach performer, his recording of the Well Tempered Clavier is one of the best ever recorded ( second only to Richter). If you listen to the "original" version on the harpsichord, you will understand that the metronome is not exaggerated.
Himmlisch. Ich spielte dieses Werk auch, kann daher sämtliche Finessen besonders geniessen. Gerade auch gefällt mir sehr gut, wie er das Cembalostück bachgerecht UND Klaviergerecht spielt. Er nutzt Fähigkeiten des Bösendorfers, welche ein Cembalo nicht leisten kann so, dass es immer noch Bach ist. Wetten, Bach hat seine helle Freude!
interesting & thought-provoking comments from almost all on this piece. That's a first for me w' RUclips. Read/scrolled down about 6 pages. Bravo for the input/output!
It's interesting in the fugue, he starts almost like he is just playing by rote, looking around the stage, distracted. But by half way into the fugue, he becomes like Gould, almost nose to the keyboard, conducting his hands with his eyes, fully engrossed.
So, what do all the learned armchair critics think that Bach would have done if he had been seated at the great Bosendorfer Imperial as seen in this video? Left the pedals untouched and tried to play it like a harpsichord? Yeah right! He would have loved it and exploited its resources to the maximum and in a way that would leave our jaws agape!
True, but then he might have written music more adapted to that, and might still have said his music is better suited for no pedal because that was what he composed for.
@@tarquin161234 I think that's unlikely tbh. There's no evidence Bach was a purist with regard to how you played his pieces. A lot of his pieces leave the exact instrument ambiguous, and he regularly reworked his compositions for other instruments. It's likely he would've been fine with harpsichord, clavichord or organ for most of his pieces, or he would've spent more time (or really, any time at all) specifying these things. One of his earliest biographers (Philipp Spitta) says he would've very likely been inspired by the grand piano had he lived to know of its existence, on the basis that he was not completely satisfied with either the clavichord's lack of volume or the harpsichord's lack of dimension. Personally I feel his music totally transcends the concept of instrumentation to begin with. You could play his music on a Game Boy and it'll still sound great.
Bach wouldn't have used any pedal because it is uneffective with counterpoint - it is not a mechanical or technical matter, but a musical one. When he wanted sustained tones he simply wrote long tones... that resonating aura is not so good for his aestetics
Bach was actually quite famous for exploring the abilities of an instrument, and pushing instruments to their limits. That's why he was often asked to test new church organs. But also keep in mind that much of Bach's more advanced music depends more on melodic and harmonic development than dynamics. This is partly why almost all Bach scores have no dynamic markings.
@ycooreman Interpretation is a matter of taste. A good interpretation needs especially coherence; then, we can like more or less some interpretations, but you can't say "this one is the best", you should say instead "I feel better with this", because Gulda, Gould, Tureck, Bernstein, Stravinskij and so on are all musicians of an extremely high level. They don't actually make mistakes, they make choices. Unless a lack of coherence in their Interpretations, they are all wonderful.
A very interesting performance, and what a treasure to have on RUclips for everyone to enjoy. For anyone who followed Gulda from his days wearing headpieces, we should all remember that he was very focused on so much of the great traditional German repertoire. In all fairness, the performance is a bit hurried at times and abrupt, but one could argue that he also created a harpsichord effect with the abrupt chords et al. But the performance has such vibrance - a treasure.
At this time he was very young and pianists have a different understanding of playing Bach when they are older - more slower. What makes us sure that playing it faster is wrong? What makes us sure that playing it slower is correct. Music which is more than 250 years old undergoes several interpretations of younger and older pianists and can only reflect the masterpiece. Bach was young and Bach was old when he played the piece during his life. Here stands the question - what was the valid one? No one can answer it correctly today.
Oh no, usually there is just one correct tempo for each piece. (or rarely 2, far from one another). That some epoch liked it slower and the other faster only means that one saw through it better than the other. What makes some people sure is that they understand the piece deeply. Take Andras Schiff as an example of deep understanding of Bach.
@bushinarin Your're right, I just have to add: In 1964, it's neither really baroque nor romantic. When interpreting old music, we can try our best in making it sound authentic, but we will never be able to do it like the then interpreters, since our lifestyle is so different, and so are e.g. our musical impressions. Gulda, Gould, etc. have heard e.g. romantic music and can't erase this memory. Or, maybe even Bach would have wanted us to play romantically, if he had known what it meant ;-) ?
This Piece was originally wrote for Harpsichord, which meant that this piece had no dynamics too it cause the harpsichord could be played in only one volume. Playing this piece on piano would seem hard cause you have to play with no dynamics.
So many pianists use a ton of rubato in the fugue, and romanticize it. But this as Gulda plays it is perfect. Fugues are musical structures, like an Eiffel Tower, or some great machine. They need symmetry, precision, and rock solid timing.
This would be a perfect piece to demonstrate the flexibility of equal temperament. Add to that the very unlike Bach development of the fantasy, and I would guess this was written to "prove" equal temperament to his students and/or fellow musicians.
@vivafra87 You are absolutely right, that is why I added the "in my opinion". It is of course, just my opinion and thus according to my taste. So maybe I should have said "that is the one that suits my taste the best".
That was fantastic. The way he shows the structure by playing the full harmonies in that "sforzando" -like manner is highly unsusual, but the idea is clear. Gulda is no less eccentric than Gould.
@aaabbbccc5 Yes, there is a transcription of this piece by Busoni. This isn't it. This is the original version by Bach. That's why Gulda announced "Johann Sebastian Bach", and not "Bach/Busoni". You can't hear the difference between Bach and Bach/Busoni?
@y1g1tcn but that's kinda the point. he's playing a song for harpsichord (?) on piano. This is the problem with playing Bach on piano... he wrote no piece for piano, because obviously it wasn't invented yet. Often this means little to no pedal, but most especially in this piece, it is up for interpretation. I like to use some pedal in the arpeggios toward the beginning of the fantasie and none in the fugue. but, in essence, the performer is already making the piece their own by switching instrs
Probably the best 10 minutes on the whole of RUclips. Transcendent performance, one of those that you keep coming back to in awe.
Just bookmarked it. In other words, yes; I agree.
For sure. Only Sergio Fiorentino on già level!
One of the greatest pianists ever !!! R.I.P
I love how he keeps the momentum going from the first to the last note, creating a beautiful flow throughout. A most satisfying performance
Among the coolest pianist ever, Gulda was so relax in his mastery of the instrument...awesome interpretation.
OAKLEYひきこもりじょしかいとジャジャメン八幡OAKLEY？
Couldn't carry Glenn Gould's jockstrap..lol
@@marciaflyte8978 make comments only when you really know about the subject, in other words, keep your morones to yourself. Good bye.
@@marciaflyte8978 unintelligent comment
Gould surely had a good technique, but lacked some musicalty and warmth, except his singing along obviously
One of the greatest interpreters of Bach and Mozart !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
..... and Beethoven
omg that fugue, it drives me crazy. So endlessly beautiful.
I really admire his easiness at playing! His fingers move so light as if there was no obstacle, no physical barrier between notes and chords. (I'm a pianist)
親友のチック・コリアが不世出の音楽家グルダに贈った言葉が有ります。「グルダの精神は音楽の創造性と冒険の精神です。彼はア−ティストとして如何なるカテゴリーにも限定されないだろう。彼は観客や友人を多くの異例の場所に連れて行きましたが、いつも人生と新しいアプローチの為のマジックタッチとフレア(自己表現)を持っていました。彼のインスピレーションは今、私たちと一緒に有り、永遠に残っています」すばらしい的を得た言葉ですね😊
BACH IS THE BEST COMPOSER FOR ALL AGES ,FOREVER IN MUSIC HISTORY !!!
I absolutely agree!!!!!!
i agree that bach is absolutely perfact, but not the best in music history
The Best!
Todor Trajcevski Bach laid the framework for the best to appear!
"i agree that bach is absolutely perfact, but not the best in music history"
Who's better in your opinion?
Absolutely, I love the steady pulse it has.
Jenseits aller Kritik, pure Musik, die eine Geschichte erzählt. Mueheloeses Spiel, das alle Schwierigkeiten vergessen lässt.
Mind blowing music and artist! Thank you so much indeed!
I watched this after watching Schiff's 2013 YT performance, and conclude that Gulda has won my heart. The first 3 minutes was a bit faster than I cared for, but the amazing change about 3 minutes in - those thunderous organic chords ! continuing to the end of the Fantasy. And the fugue was perfect.
9:44 Holds on to piano like he is holding for his life. He doesn't want to leave the piano. They are one.🇧🇷💕
What a great interpretation of this composition!!!
Never heard this Fugue - 5:34 - with such incredible power ! Very nice.:)
This "Jazz Bach" is simply fantastic!
Amazing! Incredible! I can watch this video all day!
Incredible jazzy playing in the last 2 minutes, fantastic!!! See him jumping & swinging on his stool from 8:40 onwards, wow. How does he do it??!!
I love the precision of the fugue. And he gets so absorbed in the fugue, like Gould used to do. It's almost like he is just watching his hands playing by themselves. And while it something probably only a pianist would notice, his pedaling is superb.
I thought you were an organist, not a pianist. :Ρ
You are right though...
Not only does he not hum, he plays like a genius. Thanks for posting this vintage Gulda video.
"Not only does he not hum" LOL!
That reminds me of a programme I heard on BBC 4 years ago, where a presenter said that a Gould recorded had once been introduced on the radio with the words, "Bach's English Suites, played by Glenn Gould, piano and vocals".
a masterful interpretation.
Oh yes! Another master of the keyboard. It is electrifying to listen to such a performance.
this is a wonderful version of this music.
With what ease......
Brilliant performance, Maestro ! ❤️🌹❤️
The Scarlatti like Fantasy is so unlike Bach, one could almost believe it was written by someone else, like perhaps one of his students. But the fugue! The fugue practically screams "Bach!".
素晴らしいとしか言いようがないです。ここでグルダの演奏に出会えるとは思いませんでした。感動です！！
Wow. Speechless here. That's a maestro!
Marvellous Bach from Gulda!!
Thanks for this Video.
Je ne sais plus combien de fois j'ai écouté cette fantaisie chromatique et fugue de Bach. Une splendeur en soi au niveau de la composition. Les versions sont innombrables j'en connais quelques unes que je place pour ma part parmi les meilleures, mais tout cela est très subjectif. En fin de compte, je me tourne toujours vers cette interprétation de Gulda qui est magnifique.
A sincere thank you for uploading this extraordinary performance. He's my beloved, my absolute favorite Bach's player.
Amazing and beautiful !!!!
When the Fugue starts....it's....MAGICAL
Just one thing for the ones who denigrate this performance. Gulda was one of the top pianists of that period . The counterpoint in the fugue, despite the fastness, is perfect. As a Bach performer, his recording of the Well Tempered Clavier is one of the best ever recorded ( second only to Richter). If you listen to the "original" version on the harpsichord, you will understand that the metronome is not exaggerated.
Renzo Mosetti except that metronome never existed at the time of Bach and people can play on whatever Tempo they like in my view . 😝
I hope you have Karl Richter on your mind
EdHanslick nn
Second only to Richter is a low blow. Richter played beautifully but his Bach rarely seemed on point musically---not to be imitated
Can you have a heart attack from hearing this? Amazing!
This guy is a genius. In the black-and-white era, he wore black-and-white. When a colar TV was available, he wore colorfully.
I remember when everything was in black and white. Then, The Wizard of Oz came out and, lo and behold, man discovered color. LOL
The fugue voices - amazing artistry of making two hands sound like four.
Himmlisch. Ich spielte dieses Werk auch, kann daher sämtliche Finessen besonders geniessen. Gerade auch gefällt mir sehr gut, wie er das Cembalostück bachgerecht UND Klaviergerecht spielt. Er nutzt Fähigkeiten des Bösendorfers, welche ein Cembalo nicht leisten kann so, dass es immer noch Bach ist. Wetten, Bach hat seine helle Freude!
Dieser Anschlag-fantastisch!
este hombre nos demuestra que hay Bach más alla de Glenn Gould...this man demonstrates us that there is Bach beyond Glenn Gould...
I always thought so, during my 80 years...
Excellent! Bravo!
Federico Zukanovic
Gracias Maestro por hacer grande a Marta Argerich. Orgullo.
Great interpretation!!
interesting & thought-provoking comments from almost all on this piece. That's a first for me w' RUclips. Read/scrolled down about 6 pages. Bravo for the input/output!
It's interesting in the fugue, he starts almost like he is just playing by rote, looking around the stage, distracted. But by half way into the fugue, he becomes like Gould, almost nose to the keyboard, conducting his hands with his eyes, fully engrossed.
it could not be more ahead of its time!
beautiful piano sound
Bach's music added colour to this Black & White video!
Amazing! Amazing!!!
Amazing
So, what do all the learned armchair critics think that Bach would have done if he had been seated at the great Bosendorfer Imperial as seen in this video? Left the pedals untouched and tried to play it like a harpsichord?
Yeah right! He would have loved it and exploited its resources to the maximum and in a way that would leave our jaws agape!
True, but then he might have written music more adapted to that, and might still have said his music is better suited for no pedal because that was what he composed for.
@@tarquin161234 I think that's unlikely tbh. There's no evidence Bach was a purist with regard to how you played his pieces. A lot of his pieces leave the exact instrument ambiguous, and he regularly reworked his compositions for other instruments. It's likely he would've been fine with harpsichord, clavichord or organ for most of his pieces, or he would've spent more time (or really, any time at all) specifying these things. One of his earliest biographers (Philipp Spitta) says he would've very likely been inspired by the grand piano had he lived to know of its existence, on the basis that he was not completely satisfied with either the clavichord's lack of volume or the harpsichord's lack of dimension.
Personally I feel his music totally transcends the concept of instrumentation to begin with. You could play his music on a Game Boy and it'll still sound great.
Bach wouldn't have used any pedal because it is uneffective with counterpoint - it is not a mechanical or technical matter, but a musical one.
When he wanted sustained tones he simply wrote long tones... that resonating aura is not so good for his aestetics
Bach was actually quite famous for exploring the abilities of an instrument, and pushing instruments to their limits. That's why he was often asked to test new church organs. But also keep in mind that much of Bach's more advanced music depends more on melodic and harmonic development than dynamics. This is partly why almost all Bach scores have no dynamic markings.
@@dada78641 It's more the question of how...
There's too much noise in the comments, when all there should be is: Beautiful!
@ycooreman Interpretation is a matter of taste. A good interpretation needs especially coherence; then, we can like more or less some interpretations, but you can't say "this one is the best", you should say instead "I feel better with this", because Gulda, Gould, Tureck, Bernstein, Stravinskij and so on are all musicians of an extremely high level. They don't actually make mistakes, they make choices. Unless a lack of coherence in their Interpretations, they are all wonderful.
Браво за великолепную подборку))
Beautiful 🎶🎶🎶💕🎹🎹🎹👍💞
I want to play it in diploma!🎵🎵🎵
this is incredible
A very interesting performance, and what a treasure to have on RUclips for everyone to enjoy. For anyone who followed Gulda from his days wearing headpieces, we should all remember that he was very focused on so much of the great traditional German repertoire. In all fairness, the performance is a bit hurried at times and abrupt, but one could argue that he also created a harpsichord effect with the abrupt chords et al. But the performance has such vibrance - a treasure.
es absolutamente extraordinario,genial!!
PRIMA! This young (and bald) pianist is undoubtedly something else!
@sirdelrio Thank you for articulating this point in a brilliant manner.
best version ever
También la de Christianne Jacottet al clavecin es muy buena.
Viva Gulda ! Thanks Gabor !
He also plays Jazz....amazing artist
Es gibt nur ganz wenige,die Bach glaubhaft spielen können,dieser etwas schräge Herr Gulda gehört dazu!
Ohne viel Worte,ein Meister seines 😊Faches!!!!
At this time he was very young and pianists have a different understanding of playing Bach when they are older - more slower. What makes us sure that playing it faster is wrong? What makes us sure that playing it slower is correct. Music which is more than 250 years old undergoes several interpretations of younger and older pianists and can only reflect the masterpiece. Bach was young and Bach was old when he played the piece during his life. Here stands the question - what was the valid one? No one can answer it correctly today.
+Hans-Horst Mueller there is no correct answer.
Music Rhetoric would help you find an answer (depending on how you assume the standing question, of course).
Oh no, usually there is just one correct tempo for each piece. (or rarely 2, far from one another). That some epoch liked it slower and the other faster only means that one saw through it better than the other. What makes some people sure is that they understand the piece deeply. Take Andras Schiff as an example of deep understanding of Bach.
from 11'34"
recommended!
lol. Schiff. Thank you for qualifying your perspective.
Bach/Busoni good work indeed! Gulda is my friend!
EN EL PARAISO SE OYE LA MUSICA DE BACH ANTES QUE CUALQUIER OTRO COMPOSITOR. EL ES LO MAXIMO.
E' il più grande!
there is not word. this man isn´t from this planet
I''m still sad that gelnn gould refused to record this fugue though he did the fantasie.
hearing this makes me appreciate jaco pastorius' version even more.
@bushinarin
Your're right, I just have to add: In 1964, it's neither really baroque nor romantic. When interpreting old music, we can try our best in making it sound authentic, but we will never be able to do it like the then interpreters, since our lifestyle is so different, and so are e.g. our musical impressions. Gulda, Gould, etc. have heard e.g. romantic music and can't erase this memory. Or, maybe even Bach would have wanted us to play romantically, if he had known what it meant ;-) ?
...and they would have said we played out of tune and vice-versa. And now all keys sound the same even to us.
Johannesburg - This is among the most intelligent and insightful comments I have read in any RUclips piece.Bravo!
magnificent rendition
he plays a bosendorfer!
EXCELLENT....
such clarity
A great jazz performance !
thank you friedrich !
This Piece was originally wrote for Harpsichord, which meant that this piece had no dynamics too it cause the harpsichord could be played in only one volume. Playing this piece on piano would seem hard cause you have to play with no dynamics.
自分自身は、素晴らしい演奏と感じる筆頭である。技術のギリギリの速さを取り、一定のテンポを守り、恣意的な事はしない。造詣がしっかりしていて、後のチェンバリスト達、つまりグスタフ・レオンハルトの演奏に通じる演奏だ。グルダはジャズを弾くので、そこを突き抜けて、クラヴィコードにピックアップを付けて、ロックコンサート級の音量でバッハを演奏している。どの曲でも成立するわけではないが、半音階的幻想曲とフーガに関しては説得力がある。ベービングを使うと、エレキギターのようにも聞こえる。これを越える演奏はまだないと言える。
I couldn't have said it better myself.......
@TJFNYC212 Yes,indeed, she was his only pupil. And she called him "the most gifted person I know"
it is such a hard scale! no one uses it. brilliant
Thank you for this !
Sighh, those were the golden days of concert pianists.
Stunning Bach before the Glen Gould hype.
This is so unlike most Bach music. One can only wonder what inspired him to write it. A visiting Italian musician?
So many pianists use a ton of rubato in the fugue, and romanticize it. But this as Gulda plays it is perfect. Fugues are musical structures, like an Eiffel Tower, or some great machine. They need symmetry, precision, and rock solid timing.
Monumental!
Finally found this video! This was my 8th grade exam piece in 2006. Same speed tempo but the starting part I think I went a bit too fast.
This would be a perfect piece to demonstrate the flexibility of equal temperament. Add to that the very unlike Bach development of the fantasy, and I would guess this was written to "prove" equal temperament to his students and/or fellow musicians.
@metteholm75 , actually he's not the only one to play this manner (which is my favorite). Try listening to Jaccottet's version.
Fantasy - 0:00
Fugue - 5:34
i really like this
awesome!
so good
@vivafra87 You are absolutely right, that is why I added the "in my opinion". It is of course, just my opinion and thus according to my taste. So maybe I should have said "that is the one that suits my taste the best".
So muss das sein!
That was fantastic. The way he shows the structure by playing the full harmonies in that "sforzando" -like manner is highly unsusual, but the idea is clear. Gulda is no less eccentric than Gould.
@aaabbbccc5 Yes, there is a transcription of this piece by Busoni. This isn't it. This is the original version by Bach. That's why Gulda announced "Johann Sebastian Bach", and not "Bach/Busoni".
You can't hear the difference between Bach and Bach/Busoni?
@y1g1tcn but that's kinda the point. he's playing a song for harpsichord (?) on piano. This is the problem with playing Bach on piano... he wrote no piece for piano, because obviously it wasn't invented yet. Often this means little to no pedal, but most especially in this piece, it is up for interpretation. I like to use some pedal in the arpeggios toward the beginning of the fantasie and none in the fugue. but, in essence, the performer is already making the piece their own by switching instrs
the point is not that the harpsichord had no sustain pedal, the point is that it is uneffective with counterpoint ...
Gulda is the king!