Craig Sheppard is recording the WTC one book at a time. The First
was taped live at the Meany Theatre, Seattle in April 2007 and
represents further consolidation of his gifts as one of the leading
Bach players of the day. The salient features include a thorough
absorption of editorial concerns, a concern for clarity of articulation,
a determination to let the music take wing and to explore gravity
with appropriate weight. To that end he never over pedals, and
his touch encourages kaleidoscopic, shifting patterns to emerge
but never to obscure the contrapuntal or harmonic nature of the
music’s direction.
One senses from
the very start that Sheppard will bring a sense of appropriateness
to the entire Book. The C major Prelude is warmly textured
but has clarity and its tempo is perfectly judged. The supple
rhythmic control that underlies his playing is exemplified
by the C sharp minor Fugue, which is never for one moment
mechanical or prescriptive. On the contrary it courses with
life affirming impetus, its voices cogently brought out and
evoked. The Prelude of the C sharp minor has real gravity
allied to tonal beauty, though the tone colours are selected
not for beauty in itself but for their appropriateness. The
brilliantly incisive and mobile left hand accents in the Prelude
in D minor show Sheppard’s continuing quest to aerate textures
and to keep the music making supple. The Prelude in E flat
minor has tremendous delicacy of touch without in any way
appearing mannered.
Equally the Fugue
in F minor is splendidly sustained with balanced tone colours.
These qualities run throughout the first book. The Prelude
in B flat major is brilliantly fluent but the result is not
motoric, or cool, or metallic; there is quite sufficient time
to phrase warmly but incisively, qualities that are emblematic
of Sheppard’s approach. There is expressive dignity in the
Prelude in B flat minor and in the final Fugue of Book I Sheppard
finds the unsettled, unsettling strangeness of the music.
There are moments
when Sheppard seizes the music by the scruff of the neck and
that makes for contagious excitement. For the most part however
this is a performance that stresses the mountain stream clarity
and lyricism of the music.
The
recording is, as per many of these Meany
recitals, close-up. Sheppard’s booklet
notes are both very readable and also
thought provoking. We can look forward
to Book II with the highest anticipation.
Jonathan Woolf
Craig Sheppard
(piano) 
