[.ca] Inventions & Sinfonias

Weird:
I don't like this CD. I agree whole heartedly with the reviewers here who have trouble with these performances. BUT: Lets face it: there are enough good recordings out there of Bach as it "should" be played. If you are ready for another take on these pieces; if you already have three recordings, by Glenn Gould, Andras Schiff, and one of a bajillion other excellent pianists, then this is your CD. You thought Glenn Gould had an odd take on Bach . . . You have no idea. This guy uses more rubato than you would use in a Chopin Nocturne. This performance isn't Romantic; it's INEBRIATED! Rübsam has no respect for "authenticity," and you have to respect him for that. Kudos to Rübsam for challenging the listener. As for me, I am going to stick to a more orthodox interpretation. Far from being "sterile," a conservative (if you must, "authentic") performance of Bach's music cannot help but be beautiful. For me, Rübsam's excentricities are an impediment to the communication of beauty. I give this recording four stars simply because there is no other like it that I know, whereas good performances are easy to come by.

Pleasant piano version...but better is available:
The Inventions and Sinfonias are fairly low profile works of Bach's and, unfortunately, not often performed. However, we should know that Bach did not reserve all his best composition into his larger scale pieces but also ensured that his shortest, least grandiose, pieces were put together with the same dedication and quality. And so it is with the Inventions and Sinfonias. Invention is the term Bach used here to refer to a short Prelude-like piece with two independent voices - one from the left hand one from the right which are generally working fairly independently. A Sinfonia is the same but often has a third voice in addition. Performers often shy away from these peices because of the difficulty of playing so separately with each hand. They have a strong didactic quality and each one seems to focus on a particular element of keyboard technique. Like the "Well Tempered Clavier" Bach wrote these pieces moving through the major and minor keys but, thankfully for the performer, kept away from some of the more obscure keys which, in his completeness, he used for the WTC. However, the most important quality of these pieces is that they are beautifully intimate sketches. Some of Bachs most moving and touching music is in this collection. You will not be disappointed with the composition! So, as far as this CD goes the content is superb. So, how is it performed and presented? Well, here we are in more contentious waters. Unlike many of the other reviewers here I do not think that this CD is disappointing. Rubsam has produced a recording of the Inventions & Sinfonias which seems true to the intimate nature of these pieces. The approach might be a little too "warm" for some but it worked for me and I have been listening to this CD a great deal recently. What is certainly the case is that these pieces sound very different on the piano to the instrument Bach wrote them for which is the harpsichord. I play several of these pieces on the harpsichord and the effect is very different, very crisp and clear - not romantic at all though still very intimate. For me it is quite comical listening to various reviewers debating the merits of this piano version vs that. They are simply not seeing the big picture - the key point to realise is that every piano version is de facto far away from Bach's original inspiration of these pieces. Bach wrote nothing for the piano - what you are hearing here is effectively a transcription to another instrument. That is not to denigrate but to point out that every piano version is already taking huge liberties with these pieces as they simply were not written for that instrument. My suggestions is that if you actually want to hear them as close to Bach's intention as possible then try to find a harpsichord version. Ton Koopman, a highly regarded harpsichordist and interpreter of Bach, recorded an excellent version of these pieces and included the six little preludes as well. The label is Capriccio catalogue no. 10 210 and is available from Amazon. The Koopman version is much clearer and each note is audible - the effect Bach would have expected from these pieces. Notwithstanding that, the reviewed CD - while, perhaps, not the truest to Bach's creation - works very well and brings out the essentially touching and intimate nature of the Inventions and Sinfonias. One thing is certain, you must listen to this fantastic music regardless of medium.

How Not to Play Bach:
This CD should have been called "How Not to Play Bach". Mr. Rübsam continually disrupts the natural flow of the music with overly "romanticized" hesitations, at times purposely causing the counterpoint to sound out of sync, and substituting his own rhythms which undermine the architectural unity of the music. The stuff he does with trills at times just sounds wierd. Bach infused all his music with an air of sacred contemplation (even his secular works like the inventions), so it's often easy to tell wether a performer is trying to communicate Bach's intentions or their own. Rübsam sounds as though he simply doesn't get it. At least he has good technique.

Horrifying:
This CD is perhaps the most appalling one I've purchased. By no means should you consider buying this. I bought it because it was the first cheap and complete set of two-part inventions I found. Go for Glenn Gould and you won't go wrong, trust me. The only fathomable way Rubsam could have some dignity in recording such an atrocious set is if he was sight-reading these pieces. That is what it sounds like. Specifically, he plays No. 13 (A Minor) about one minute too slow, and in a one-minute piece . . . To say it is a Romantic interpretation would be a disgrace to the Romantic Period, but. Rubsam uses rubato EXCESSIVELY. As in, every measure. Totally unacceptable. I urge you to buy Glenn Gould, not this.

A recording of not-Bach:
Rubsam is not some incompetent keyboardist hacking at these pieces with thumbs. His complete Bach organ works on Philips has some reputation; however, he seems to be trying to change his style consciously in his recordings for Naxos, both on organ and piano. But this particular change in style since his recording days with Philips, no matter how admirable the attempt, is so contrary to the language of Bach that it becomes nonsense with these pieces, with strange phrasing and awful "rubato." The rhythmic vitality, so important in Bach's counterpoint, is gone when listening to Rubsam's recordings of these pieces. One should not have to play like a typewriter to get Bach's language across--that would be a travesty. And Romanticism does have a great part in Bach. Many of the great interpreters of Bach are Romantic--Landowska, Gould, Hewitt, Tureck, etc. (A metronomic performance of any music would be unlistenable.) However, their rubato did not overstep excessiveness; their phrasings were not like in Rubsam's case--what else can I say?--akin to a campy William Shatner delivery on an episode of *Star Trek*. They *tastefully* kept the essential points of Bach's language, maintaining the counterpoint. If one cannot understand Bach without having to have this sort of mannerism, such as with Rubsam, foisted upon the ears in order to pay attention to Bach, in order to think of him as musical, then perhaps Bach is not the man for one's soul. Does one need to conduct Mahler like Vivaldi in order to call Mahler musical if he does not already speak to one's senses? Of course not. And what on earth do we have here as a performance in Bach? One can pull out of a hat all sorts of excuses to justify this recording, and one can call the style whatever one wants; however, it is neither Liszt nor Chopin, Beethoven nor Mozart, Scarlatti nor Rameau. Whatever it is, it is certainly not Bach.

• No. 1, BWV 772 (1st Version)
• No. 1, BWV 772 (2nd Version)
• No. 2, BWV 773
• No. 3, BWV 774
• No. 4, BWV 775
• No. 5, BWV 776
• No. 6, BWV 777
• No. 7, BWV 778
• No. 8, BWV 779
• No. 9, BWV 780
• No. 10, BWV 781
• No. 11, BWV 782
• No. 12, BWV 783
• No. 13, BWV 784
• No. 14, BWV 785
• No. 15, BWV 786
• No. 1, BWV 787
• No. 2, BWV 788
• No. 3, BWV 788
• No. 4, BWV 790
• No. 5, BWV 791
• No. 6, BWV 792
• No. 7, BWV 793
• No. 8, BWV 794
• No. 9, BWV 795
• No. 10, BWV 796
• No. 11, BWV 797
• No. 12, BWV 798
• No. 13, BWV 799
• No. 14, BWV 800
• No. 15, BWV 801