(Grigory Sokolov | 1995 | Live) Bach: 8 Preludes & Fugues from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book 2

Not known to many today, but like Feinberg (previous video) Sokolov has traversed the entire Well-Tempered Clavier as well - a project which took him 8 years to complete 1990-1997. Despite that I love them both Sokolov’s Bach is in many ways everything Feinberg’s is not. Objective, structured, stable, and with deep thought and learning behind the notes - but nonetheless equally creative and imaginative, and benefiting from two generations worth of development in Bach playing. Sokolov can in some sense be thought of as an evolution and union of Gould’s mind and Gilels’ aesthetics. His Bach rests largely on Gould’s ideas of objectivity, form, and characterization of voices, but in Sokolov’s hands the music is shaped by a more down to earth playing style, with a richer sound and a more varied range of touch which makes even these little academic studying pieces spring to life in a way they rarely have elsewhere. And that astonishing intelligence of his playing. Has Bach’s voice writin