This month BIS is releasing two discs of JS Bach’s keyboard works, both of them from members of the Suzuki family. One is a harpsichord version of The Art of Fugue, played by Masaaki Suzuki, founder of the Bach Collegium Japan and doyen of present-day Bach interpreters, while the other is this survey of the first volume of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues, The Well-tempered Clavier, performed by Masaaki’s son, Masato.
It’s played on a modern harpsichord, a copy of a two-manual, 17th-century Flemish instrument with a robust and muscular sound. Much of Suzuki’s playing is robust and muscular too; tempi are generally on the fast side, while still allowing for generous expressive effects that just occasionally are a bit overdone, as in, it seems to me, the C sharp minor Prelude. But some of the other preludes can seem cluttered and rushed – the C minor, for instance. Generally it’s the fugues that are the more impressive: both the G major and A major are projected with wonderful verve and crispness, and really show Suzuki at his best.
