MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
The Well-Tempered Clavier - Book I
Pietro De Maria (piano)
rec. 2014, Auditorium del Suffragio, Lucca
DECCA 4811304 [54:00 + 56:14]

I only discovered the Italian pianist Pietro De Maria when I recently purchased a 13 CD box set of the Complete Chopin Piano Works (0289 481 11671), which he recorded for Italian Decca between 2006 and 2009. What an impressive survey it is: he has a real feeling and instinct for this composer. After some research via Google, I discovered that he had just released his latest album – Book I of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier.

Pietro De Maria was born in Venice in 1967 and studied piano with Giorgio Vianello and Gino Gorini. At the age of only 13 he won First Prize at the Alfred Cortot International Piano Competition in Milan. After graduating from the Conservatory of Venice he continued his studies with Maria Tipo at the Conservatory of Geneva. Other prizes include the Critics' Prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1990), the Dino Ciani - Teatro La Scala in Milan (1990), the Géza Anda in Zurich (1994), and the Mendelssohn Award in Hamburg (1997).

These performances of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I are technically accomplished, assured and immaculately delivered. De Maria obviously loves this music and invests it with tonal beauty and a wealth of colour and shadings. Whilst the playing is rhythmically alert, there’s flexibility, and the polyphonic lines are delineated with clarity and precision. Nuance and dynamic gradients are subtly applied. Judicious pedalling never allows harmonies to be blurred in any way. There’s certainly no sense of routine or academic dryness; he brings freshness, spontaneity and intelligence to the individual Preludes and fugues, each emerging as though freshly composed.

Some of the highlights are worthy of mention. The simplicity of the opening Prelude in C major has an innocence, beguiling charm and gentle flowing quality. The C minor Fugue is joyful and ebullient with a sprightly spring in its step. This infectious affability extends to the A flat major Prelude, and the G major has an animated briskness, though not quite pipping Richter to the post. One is carried along with the buoyant flow of the F major Prelude and Fugue. On the reverse of the coin, the D sharp minor Fugue conveys a sombre introspection, with the B flat minor Fugue also darkly portrayed, yet with an underlying serenity. The F minor Prelude exudes a meditative calm, allowing the listener to luxuriate in its beauty and refinement.

The Decca engineers have captured the expertly voiced Steinway in superbly engineered, sumptuous sound. The sympathetically warm and spacious acoustic of the Auditorium del Suffragio, Lucca is ideally suited to highlight the polyphonic strands of the music with pristine clarity and definition. Masterly and informative annotations by Nicola Cattň shed background and context around the evolution of the Bach opus, whilst Pietro De Maria shares his own thoughts and personal insights from a performer’s perspective. Notes are in Italian with English translation.

This is top-drawer playing of the finest order and I’m now eagerly looking forward to Book II.

Stephen Greenbank
 

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing