Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Well Tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV 846-869 (1722)

Luc Beausejour (harpsichord)
Recorded St. John Chrysostom Church,
Newmarket, Ontario, July/October 2005
Released March 2007
Naxos 8.557625-26 [2cds - 111:21]

Andrei Vieru (piano)
Recorded Chapelle de l'hopital Notre-Dame de Bon Secours,
Paris, Summer 2005
Released April 2006
Alpha Productions 087 [2cds - 138:49]

Even setting aside the matter of harpsichord vs.  piano, these two
sets of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 are as different as "day
and night".  Beausejour employs quick tempos; Vieru takes his sweet time.
Beausejour is the epitome of "mainstream", while Vieru's readings are
distinctive and thought-provoking.  Beausejour uses a very limited range
of color and texture; Vieru is quite expansive in these areas, creating
a more interesting and fresh approach to Bach's music.  Concerning matters
of rhythmic hesitations and staggering of musical lines, Beausejour
avoids them; Vieru uses these techniques to advance his musical arguments
and deepen the emotional palette.  Speaking of emotional content,
Beausejour prefers a Bach of moderation, a notion that doesn't hold much
validity with me.  I am also not impressed with Beausejour's avoidance
of incisive inflections and the floating of a note.  Lastly, Vieru's
performances have an improvisatory feel to them, while Beausejour's
sound mechanical in comparison.

I'm being rather hard on Luc Beausejour, but the worst is yet to come -
harpsichord sound.  It is thin with a very weak bass response, a condition
that worsens the musical dialogue.  Playing around with the audio controls
and my trusty equalizer helps a little, but I find the results not really
worth the effort.  Oddly enough, the liner notes report that the harpsichord
Beausejour plays was built in 1985 to achieve "the sound ideal" for
Bach's keyboard music.  From the sound on the recording, I think that
the builders (Rejean Poirier and Yves Beaupre) might want to go back to
the drawing board.

So although Beausejour's performances are thoroughly professional and
quite enjoyable, they take a back-seat to the exceptional harpsichord
sets from Gustav Leonhardt, Helmut Walcha, Blandine Verlet, Edward
Parmentier, Kenneth Gilbert, Wanda Landowska, Masaaki Suzuki and Glen
Wilson.  With competition at such a high level, Beausejour's version
only has viability for those on a very tight Naxos budget.

Moving from Luc Beausejour to Andrei Vieru is a most advantageous
decision.  The music now takes on an organic quality with an abundant
sense of improvisation, freshness, deep thought, illumination of the
architecture and a deep-rooted love of the full range of Bach's musical
personality.  Any reservations I have read from other reviews center
around the premise that Vieru makes too much use of the pedals, but
my view is that his performances are delightfully lush.  Of course, a
lush sound can damage the clarity of musical detail, but Vieru amazingly
offers highly detailed readings that refine Bach's contrapuntal lines.
At the same time, there is a noteworthy sensual element to the performances
that I have not noticed in other versions of the Well Tempered Clavier.

Don's Conclusions: Although not one of the more exciting Well Tempered
Claviers on the market, Vieru's set has a host of compelling features
that makes it among the top echelon of recordings.  Beausejour's mainstream
and not very interesting readings pale next to Vieru's and are not
recommended.  I expected better from Beausejour, but Vieru has more
than made up for my disappointment.

Don Satz
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