Word: bache
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...says a lot about the scope and ambition of Pratt's concert program that a piece as great as the Bach acted as prelude. It also says a lot about Brahms' Op. 24 variations that the set succeeded as successor...
...program was comprised of only three works: the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, the Brahms Handel Variations and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition...
This miracle of invention, inspired by a vanilla aria on which Handel himself wrote five unassuming variations, drew praise even from Brahms' antipode, Wagner. Like their worthy companions, the Bach Goldberg and the Beethoven Diabelli, these pieces explore the melodic and harmonic potential of their progenitor exhaustively, and function collectively as a treatise on the composer's sense of keyboard style. But more than the Goldberg and the Diabelli, the Handel variations are witty...
...Though "Bach-Pratt" may never achieve the hyphenated ubiquity of "Bach-Busoni," the pianist's realization of the organ music was good, particularly in the translation of pedal points and high-register fireworks. In the Passacaglia, his loud, turbo righthand octaves were sensational, though there seemed to be some rhythmic slipping and sliding. The first fugal episode was marvelous, and it was interesting to consider just how well the Hall worked as church space. Sometimes the texture of the fugue became too dense or blurred for comprehension, but the forceful, toccata-style ending was astonishingly clear...
...disc was four Beethoven sonatas. I don't play any meaninglessly difficult things. No, no Godowsky. Alkan has an interesting tonal language...I try to do sets that illustrate relationships that interest me. I was doing a set [in concert] that would alternate Beethoven sonatas with Rachmaninoff preludes and Bach preludes and fugues, and there was a Chopin nocturne in there...