Bach: Keyboard Concerti, BWV 1052-56, 1058 - Vladimir Feltsman, piano, Orchestra of St. Luke's

Bach Concertos liner notes

Styles change, and it is a relief for those of us who have always enjoyed listening to-and playing-Bach’s music on the piano not to have to make any more apologies for our taste. I acknowledge that the piano may not have been the instrument for which Bach wrote these pieces-for that matter, the concertos on this disc were not originally intended for keyboard at all-but, in an era when there are any number of authentic recordings on clavichord or harpsichord available, why shouldn’t we explore the mulipicity of colors, textures and dynamics intrinsic in Bach’s music that can only be made accessible by a pianist? As the late Glenn Gould once observed, back in the days when musicalogical dogma was at its most rigid, if you take the notion of authenticity too far, about the only thing a conscientious musician would be able to play proudly on a modern piano was Rachmaninoff-and even that would have to be played on a turn-of-the-century Bosendorfer or a German Steinway.