Mahan Esfahani plays Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I

[rauschwerk]

One really refreshing aspect of Pinnock's Book 1 recording is that the booklet simply says "unequal temperament (Pinnock/Neal)": in other words, "use your ears and listen to the music!". Stuff the squiggles, say I.

[kernelbogey]

Recorded in April at Wigmore Hall, Esfahani plays his own modern instrument created by a Finnish maker* whose name is not on the website.
I found the tone of the instrument very beautiful and listened to the whole of the performance.
*Sounds like Yuko Ulica

Does any one recognise the maker of the instrument from my crude transliteration of the name?

[Mandryka]

.. well, wasn't that rather the point of the various 'good tempered' systems of tuning which were coming into being around then, and which Bach's 48 in a way celebrate by demonstrating the ability to play in all keys?

Me, I'm probably out of date now, but I think Werckmeister III works very well for this Bach -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werckmeister_temperament

https://academic.oup.com/em/article-abstract/7/2/236/392921?redirectedFrom=PDF

But see also -

http://users.telenet.be/broekaert-devriendt/Index.html

Bryn, I think, rather favours Bradley Lehman's 'squiggle theory'

http://journal.juilliard.edu/journal/ongoing-quest-bachs-temperament

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I vaguely remember that Werkmeister (or someone) had a temperament called wohltempierte - I’ll check later.


I just want to put an idea on the table, it just popped into my head and it hasn’t occurred to me before, so may be nonsense.

Does the fact that he seems to have had a specific temperament in mind mean that Bach did NOT intend any of this music for organ - just because you can’t retune an organ easily?

[vinteuil]

Does any one recognise the maker of the instrument from my crude transliteration of the name?

Jukka Ollikka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qKzGyOdJkU

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[Mandryka]

One really refreshing aspect of Pinnock's Book 1 recording is that the booklet simply says "unequal temperament (Pinnock/Neal)": in other words, "use your ears and listen to the music!". Stuff the squiggles, say I.

The Pinnock Bk 1 is very good I think!

[Mandryka]

... very happy to accept that.

Years ago I was involved with a major Early Music competition, and became great mates with our supplier of harpsichords. He said that the competitors wd often be very pertick'ler in their requests for temperament - rameau, vallotti, kirnberger, werkmeister, &c. He noticed that in rehearsals they didn't notice at all whether the instrument supplied happened to be in the temperament requested...


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LOL - it depends what they’re playing I suppose. When I come to power I will command that all early keyboard music is played quarter comma meantone - and Beethoven and Chopin too! As Schoenberg said, we have to emancipate the dissonance to understand it, and then to enjoy it (or something like that.)