"Within seconds you’re drawn into the gentle hammer-strokes that unlock Crossland’s warm, rounded and perpetually singing sonority"
Gramophone
Gramophone, May 2008
Several choices exist for collectors who seek intimacy and lyricism above all else in piano versions of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1: namely André Vieru, Michael Levinas and, more persuasively, Jill Crossland. Indeed, this recording represents a quantum leap over the bland and enervated Goldberg Variations she made a few years back (Warner). Within seconds you’re drawn into the gentle hammer-strokes that unlock Crossland’s warm, rounded and perpetually singing sonority, gorgeously captured via Jonathan Haskell’s engineering.
The preludes inspire Crossland’s best work. I especially enjoyed the C major’s intelligent dynamic build and subtle shadings, the D major’s perky left-hand accents, the G major’s skittish yet impeccably controlled fingerwork, the A flat major’s conversational thrust and the A minor’s brisk, angular profile.
However, as many of the fugues progress, Crossland’s articulation grows less pinpointed and more generalised, while her basic tempi end up a shade slower than where she started. That’s probably why the C major, C sharp minor and B flat minor Fugues (to give a few examples) appear to run out of steam. Although Crossland trills naturally and beautifully (no Rosalyn Tureck over-calculation), she’s not one for adventurous ornaments in the manner of András Schiff. If you’re in the market for a stand-alone Book 1 on piano, and sense that Crossland’s unselfregarding Bach style might hold appeal, sample this release back-to-back with Till Fellner’s ECM version (7/04) in a blind listening taste-test.
