Johann Sebastian Bach began his Well-Tempered Clavier -- the "48," to some -- with the modest intention of providing good teaching material for his gifted children and "for the particular delight of those already skilled" and in the process, this most sacred of composers created one of the great humanistic statements in music. One aspect of controversy attached to it -- moreover a controversy that will likely never be resolved -- is just what Bach meant by Well-Tempered. In all practical purposes, equal temperament has been assumed, as this work, written for the clavichord, has largely fallen into the realm of piano music, an instrument Bach himself barely had any contact with and only encountered decades after this music was written. On this Quill Classics release, Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book One, New York-based harpsichordist and member of the American Festival of Microtonal Music
Rebecca Pechefsky has decided to investigate, for the first time on recordings, an alternative perspective on temperament in utilizing the Werckmeister III tuning common among organists in Bach's own time.
Pechefsky is very devoted to Bach's text and overall this is a very no nonsense performance; ornamentation is kept to a minimum and little if any is used outside of what is specified in the score. However, it is also a highly expressive performance, and the slightly tart harmonic tinge of Werckmeister III does open up some vistas on Bach's possible intentions not typically heard when the work is played on a standard concert grand. For example, some passages in the D sharp minor Fugue sounding distinctively minor played on piano come off with a more major key flavor played in the Werckmeister III tuning, and there are other spots throughout the set where the change in sonority does lead to a shift in perception of the music. However,
Pechefsky's combination of sensitivity and exactness ultimately takes the mind of the listener away from all concerns about temperament and into purely pleasurable and uplifting musical experience, the way Bach would have it.
Quill Classics' recording is a little quiet, though this is an accurate rendering of what the instruments in use sound like when the music is live;
Pechefsky plays an Eckersley and Fisk rebuild of a Ruckers and Beaupré copy of a single-manual Italian instrument. There are loads and loads of complete "48s" on both piano and period keyboard instruments, though it is not an undesirable thing for a Bach enthusiast to own more than one recorded version. So don't overlook this one, as it does have a unique angle on this seminal Bach work.