Whether or not Bach's keyboard music should be played on a modern piano is a subject that has been debated for so long there would appear to be nothing new to say about it. What should have been the last word was spoken long ago by Rosalyn Tureck. This music, she said, is essentially abstract, and can therefore be played on virtually anything.
Tureck's own legendary 1953 recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is now available on four CDs from Deutsche Grammophon (463 305-2). You can read a mini-debate on its merits at www.amazon.com. Despite the boxed-in mono sound and some residual tape hiss, it is incomparable. The individual character Tureck gives to each of the 96 tracks is totally astonishing. It converted me overnight to what she calls "the bible of Western music."
Glenn Gould: A State of Wonder
Sony Classical Legacy
SM3K 87703
This repackaging of the two recordings Gould made of Bach's Goldberg Variations offers remastered versions of both. They date from 1955 and 1981 and are very different. But what is particularly valuable is the inclusion of a third, "bonus" CD. This contains the interview Gould gave to music critic and radio journalist Tim Page in 1982 discussing the two recordings. It's hilarious in places, but Gould's thoughts on Bach, and on his younger self playing this music, is something all music-lovers should possess. The first version was one of the most famous recordings ever made, selling in enormous numbers, often to people who'd never bought a classical record before and maybe never did again. But Gould in the interview is rather embarrassed by his youthful excesses, and some critics have indeed called his interpretation eccentric. Those who have long loved it will be hard to persuade of the 1981 version's superiority, however, especially with Gould singing along very audibly on many tracks. The "bonus" CD ends with 12 minutes of takes from the 1955 recording sessions during which Gould demonstrates how God Save the Queen and The Star-Spangled Banner can be played simultaneously so long as you begin half-way through the first. All in all, these three CDs are pure gold. They would make the ideal Christmas present for just about anyone you know, yourself included.
Volodos: Solo Piano Works
Sony Classical
SK 89647
Music promoters have for 20 years been struggling to find a pianist with the popular appeal of Glenn Gould. A current favorite is the 30-year-old Russian, Arcadi Volodos. Here he plays two Schubert sonatas, numbers 1 and 18, with great tenderness, and ends with Liszt's transcription of the penultimate song in Schubert's Die Schone Mullerin cycle in which the miller drowns himself. This sad ending is especially appropriate in that these recordings were the last ones made in Vienna's venerable Sofiensaal before it burnt down in 2001.
Murray Perahia: Songs without Words
Sony Classical
SK 66511
Murray Perahia: Bach Keyboard Concertos
Sony Classical
SK 89690
Perahia also includes four Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs on the first of these CDs. The CD is otherwise occupied with 15 of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, so beloved of mid-19th century amateur and concert pianists, and four of Busoni's piano versions of Bach choral numbers. All items are played with Perahia's usual unostentatious artistry, and might even succeed in giving Mendelssohn's deceptively smooth-sounding style some new admirers.
The second CD contains Bach's keyboard concertos numbers 3, 5, 6 and 7, played on a piano by Perahia while simultaneously conducting London's Academy of St Martin in the Fields instrumentalists. These, usually referred to as Bach's Clavier Concertos, aren't the greatest music in the world, but Perahia plays their solo parts with wit and charm nonetheless.
Classic Perlman: Rhapsody
Sony Classical
SK 89449
Itzhak Perlman already has a large following in Taiwan, but this compilation CD, with several famous artists (Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim) in attendance, will serve any newcomers as a convenient introduction to the warm-hearted violinist who plays sitting down due to a childhood bout of polio.
Morelenbaum2/ Sakamoto: Casa
Sony Classical
SK 89982
Opera Babes: Beyond Imagination
Sony Classical
SK 89916
These are two semi-classical items. The first consists of laid-back Brazilian songs, sometimes in Portuguese, sometimes in English sung by Paula Morelenbaum, accompanied by Jacques Morelenbaum (cello) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano). The items are beautifully recorded, if rather unvaried in style when heard one after another. The second CD is of famous opera arias with the addition of frequently brutal drumming. The Opera Babes may have been good enough for the 2002 World Cup organizers, but any genuine opera-lover will recognize them for what they are, an execrable travesty.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
When the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces 50 years ago this week, it prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million people — hundreds of thousands fleeing perilously on small boats across open water to escape the communist regime. Many ultimately settled in Southern California’s Orange County in an area now known as “Little Saigon,” not far from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where the first refugees were airlifted upon reaching the US. The diaspora now also has significant populations in Virginia, Texas and Washington state, as well as in countries including France and Australia.
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
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