It's probably foolish of me to recommend a recording of Bach's English Suites when it's the only recording I've listened to the whole way through, but I'm going to do it anyway, for a few reasons. One is that it's a cheap album that you can buy on iTunes and it comes with some bonus Scarlatti sonatas; another is that it's really, really good.
The recording in question is by Ivo Pogorelich, a Croatian pianist known mainly for his Chopin. It's a testament to his interpretive breadth that he is also able to play Bach and Scarlatti so convincingly. I think I remember reading an interview with Horowitz or some other old pianist saying that the best way to approach Bach on the piano is to pretend you're playing a harpsichord -- which is to say that the main problem with Bach on a modern piano is you've got to make it sound like it isn't a modern piano. It would be easy to succumb to the temptation to let the notes sustain and bleed all over each other into an Impressionistic mess. With Bach the most important consideration is clarity, since Baroque harmony is the result of the interweaving of separate melodic lines. When Bach was writing these pieces the pianoforte was a new instrument that sounded more like a clavichord than anything we'd recognize as a piano today. The dynamic range was much more limited, the strings weren't doubled, and the sustain pedal may not have even existed yet.
All that being said, it is very possible to play Bach on a modern instrument, provided you have an understanding of how to approach the music. Pogorelich clearly does and for that reason I wholeheartedly recommend this recording to anyone interested in exploring the music of J.S. Bach. This is a recording on Deutsche Grammophon from 1986 (presumably digital) and the sound is crisp without brittleness. I'm not sure where this was recorded but the ambience sounds quite natural and not overpowering or bone-dry, making it a pleasure to listen to and not fatiguing to the ears, even on headphones.
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