As
Cole Porter once said, is this the good turtle soup or merely the mock? Or, more appositely, is
Bernard Roberts' recordings of
Bach's French Suites the real thing, a probing and profound exploration of
Bach's bottomless musical depths, or is it just another recording? While the British, in their infinite provincialism, have anointed
Roberts a master of
Bach and
Beethoven and all things German, it is impossible to agree.
Roberts is surely an able pianist with a decent technique and a warm if wan tone, but to judge by these 2004 performances, he's no
Richter. In
Roberts' hands,
Bach's music rolls on like a river, but it is a shallow river with a weak current and nothing to disturb its placid surface. Nothing is too fast, nothing is too slow, nothing is too high, nothing is too low, nothing is too quiet, nothing is too loud, and nothing means much of anything. Nimbus' recordings are a bit too cavernous and reverberant.