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Special offer. Bach-Busoni

Jan Michiels (piano)

Bach-Busoni
Michiels plays the Preludes with admirable flexibility and in some, notably ‘Wachet auf’, an almost baroque-like approach to articulation. The Preludes are performed on a Bechstein piano of...

Special offer. Bach-Busoni

Jan Michiels (piano)

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CD

Original price $18.75 Reduced price $15.00

4 available: usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

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From Original price $9.25 Reduced price $6.50

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Audio formats guide

44.1 kHz, 24 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

Original price ($18.25) Reduced price $12.75

44.1 kHz, 16 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

Original price ($13.75) Reduced price $9.50

320 kbps, MP3

Original price ($9.25) Reduced price $6.50

This release includes a digital booklet

Stream now Hi-RES 44.1 kHz, 24 bit
Michiels plays the Preludes with admirable flexibility and in some, notably ‘Wachet auf’, an almost baroque-like approach to articulation. The Preludes are performed on a Bechstein piano of...

About

For Ferruccio Busoni, Bach’s music was the root and the foundation of piano playing. His many transcriptions confirm this point of view, whilst his monumental Fantasia Contrappuntistica attempts to provide a conclusion to Bach’s unfinished Kunst der Fuge. Busoni received a great deal of criticism for this, to which he replied “the musical art-work exists both within and outside of Time… there is no Old or New. There is only Known or Unknown”. Today — one century and many fashions of “authentic” ways of performing Bach later — is possibly the time to rediscover the true voice of this great musician; for Bach, music was like “a divine child who did not touch the earth with his feet but floated on air”. Jan Michiels takes you into this divine air with an ‘old’ Bechstein from 1860 as well as with a brand new Straight Strung Grand Piano by Chris Maene.

Contents and tracklist

I. Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist, BWV 667
Track length2:10
II. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140
Track length3:16
III. Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659
Track length4:19
IV. Nun freut euch, Lieben Christen g'mein, BWV 734a
Track length2:17
V. Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639
Track length3:12
VI. Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf, BWV 617
Track length2:03
VII. Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV 637
Track length1:46
VIII. Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV 705
Track length3:41
IX. In dir ist Freude, BWV 615
Track length2:44
X. Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 665
Track length5:23

Awards and reviews

May 2020

Michiels plays the Preludes with admirable flexibility and in some, notably ‘Wachet auf’, an almost baroque-like approach to articulation. The Preludes are performed on a Bechstein piano of 1860 with straight, parallel stringing…For the Fantasia contrappuntistica of 1910 Michiels uses a modern piano built by Chris Maene…the clarity of sound is admirable.

June 2020

Favouring headlong tempos, Michiels channels his reserves of virtuosity towards architectural continuity throughout the Bach/Busoni Chaconne, while providing more flexible contrast in the major-key episodes. This strong performance constitutes Michiels’s most cohesive,
fluent and satisfying playing over the course of an uneven release.
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