The latest Schiff Bach Partitas recording is outstanding in performance and sound recording
It’s one of the finest pianists before public today is the reputed Hungarian maestro Andras Schiff. After enchanting his audiences with superb complete cycles of Beethoven sonatas performed in various musical venues and on a legendary recording as well, Schiff has continued his Bach journey with refreshed vigor and insightful inspiration (a complementary point of view to Murray Perahia’s version, as you wish). In this twofer one can find some of the most refined accounts ever of the celebrated movements in the six Bach partitas. Played with a special attention to the minutest detail but expressing supremely the mastering of the grand line at the same time, these fundamental works in the piano literature gain here profound accounts by a star pianist who avoids pedaling (not only in these particular pieces, but in all Bach’s output, as he argues in his interviews). Undoubtedly, Schiff aims at conveying the deepest truths of the scores with such austere an approach. His musical honesty helps him to deal with the most proper nuances and turns of phrase, with most evocative utterances and kindest serenity in what I would call the spontaneously natural way of rendering these masterpieces of the Baroque. Schiff’s touch makes them tell compelling stories, successfully advocating the simplicity and directness in musical interpretation. One simply understands immediately why Bach is considered the greatest composer of ages.
