Search - Keith Jarrett :: Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 / Keith Jarrett

Why harpsichord?

Andrei Todea | Bucharest, Romania | 08/21/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I am a vey big fan of Keith Jarrett. I have more than 40 Jarrett albums (solo + trio) and I think I've heard the Koeln Concert more than 50 times. I am not very familiar with Bach's WTC. I have only 3 other interpretetions: Richter (piano) - very poetic, Gould (piano) - new and sometimes totally different than the book and a cheap harpsichord interpretion.

Jarrett does something really strange. He playes Part I on piano and Part II on harpsichord. I have no idea why he does that. The CD's look the same (just different colors) and there is no way you would expect to get Part II on a different instrument than Part I. The interpretetion (if you can listen to that instrument) is the worst I've heard so far."

JS Bach's well tempered clavier book 2 jarrett

r.b. | Great Britain | 06/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is actually a very fine effort by Keith Jarrett and much better than the other reviews afford him here.For book 2 he chose to play a harpsichord rather than the piano and his playing is (as you would expect)

technically flawless with good tempi judgment's .It is true he does not dig deep into the nuances of the harpsichord (like Dantone's version for example) but has a nice smooth feel with a straight ahead no nonsense approach .I am puzzled by some of the comment's that he has a poor touch at the harpsichord.Jarrett is one of the world's finest pianists and his approach to the harpsichord is just as professional.Ottavio Dantone's recording of book 2 is still to date the best harpsichord version i've heard but Jarrett's is very close behind and is among the finest well tempered clavier book 2 recording's available."

Simple, Clean, Cleansing Bach Part 2

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 08/04/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review is from: Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 / Keith Jarrett (Audio CD)

Keith Jarrett is such a fine musician that he, as a composer as well as a performer and a jazz interpreter as well as a classics interpreter, knows when to simply let the written notes be played the way they were written. His Bach is very straightforward: yes, he embellishes in keeping with the indications and musical period of Bach, but he never lets the embellishments sound as though they should call attention to the performer. Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier is performed on the piano while Book Two is performed on the harpsichord. For this listener his piano keyboard Bach is more interesting than his Harpsichord Bach and I'm not at all certain why he elected to change instruments. But perhaps that is simply one more aspect of Jarrett's exploration of works he deems important enough to spend his concentration and time reproducing.



One of the pleasures of Jarrett's playing is his knowledge of how to bring a phrase to a close and for that matter how he prepares for the closing of a variation. It feels right, as though he has thought about Bach's ideas and incorporated them into his own manner of performing. Both of these 2CD albums are very well recorded and make a solid addition to the library: piano keyboard Bach or harpsichord keyboard Bach - both make for repeated frequent listenings. Grady Harp, August 10"