Review on Ashkenazy's Bach Well-Tempered Clavier

When this CD was just released, I thought much about whether I should buy this work. There are already so many master interpretations, including those played by Glenn Gould, Richter, Tureck, Nikolayeva, and Schiff. And there were quite few reviews about this new work by Ashkenazy when it was just released.

But I still gave it a try. And, WOW!, I am glad that I have made the purchase decision. As a pianist, Ashkenazy seldom dissatisfies his audiences recently. His Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues is a good example. And this Bach Well-Tempered Clavier is no exception. The style of the whole work is a little like Sviatoslav Richter PLUS Glenn Gould. The rhythm is rich, fresh and colorful with the spiritual sound produced by Ashkenazy's beautifully using the pedals. If someone wonders whether it is bland, I can tell you it definitely is not. Ashkenazy possesses the animation of Glenn Gould but proceeds without GG's sometimes eccentricity. Ashkenazy expresses the beautiful sound and smooth rhythm of Sviatoslav Richter but bounces and rocks more! However, in addition to all the above features, you can still feel and appreciate Ashkenazy's unique understanding of this classic. And his uniqueness is pretty.

This is a masterwork played by a master. Take it, and put it among those previous interpretations. We have a new classic.

Note

There is a common phenomena that people usually buy more books than what they read. The speed of their buying books exceeds that of their reading books. Such kind of phenomena happens to me. Making a little counting, I find that I have bought ten books recently but still have not finished reading any one of them. Is such condition terrible? Maybe it is if you just keep telling yourself: Well, this is definitely the last one! while there is always the next one. But how could you just ignore a book when you find that it is so attractive and that it might contribute some breakthrough changes to your life? Of course there is always a sound over there: Well, you don't have to buy it immediately. It will still be there waiting for you. However, there is still another sound: Oh my, do you forget that last time you would have said forever goodbye to XXX book if you had not picked it up again accidently after such a long time? Maybe it is not books but human mind that causes the real trouble.

Another issues related to this phenomena of buying more books than you read is the way you read them. I find myself seldom read them one by one. If you buy books after finishing all the existing books you have, there is no such issue. I proceed with almost all of the books at the same time. Maybe A book today, B book tomorrow, and C book the day after tomorrow. D book in the morning, E book right after the lunch, F book in the afternoon, and G book before going to bed at midnight. There is one advantage in this way: you don't get stuck in some tiny section of some book. Reading a book is sometimes like conversing with someone. You are conversing with the author when you are reading a book. There is always some moment at which you just could not continue the conversation. So we could just change the conversation partner. We could just change the book and start another fresh exploration. And everything goes smoothly again. Another advantage of reading many books simutaneously is that you could integrate different concepts of different systems of different books. Take the books about "Decision Making" for example, if you are reading both the book which is mainly about gathering effective information before making decisions and the book which is mainly about "blink", you can think of the integration of such different systems. Different systems reflect authors' different ways of viewing the world. Knowing different viewpoints is just great. It broadens our mind. It helps integration. It makes us stand on the shoulders of the giants.

However, as some old wise guys have mentioned, money always counts. If the phenomena happens to you you'd better take the budget into consideration. It would be perfect that not only the greatness of books and the boundedness of monetary resources consolidate, but also the greatness of books consolidates the richness of monetary resources. Cash is life blood to life. But cash should not lead. It should follow.