"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.
Jed Distler
Musik an Sich, Germany, November 2008
Bach sounds so beautiful
The listener who is used to Glenn Gould as a guide through J S Bach’s keyboard works will not want his ears so soon to revisit its dry, analytical and often perverse piano sound. In particular, there are the passages played against the grain, the sharply accented attack and the crystalline clarity, even at extreme fast tempos. Contrary and brilliantly clean, virtuosic and at the same time sublime – that is what Gould’s Bach is like.
The arrival of British pianist Jill Crossland administers a small but salutary shock. Her recording of both books of the Well-tempered Clavier, now completed, sounds so effortless, natural and light that one often feels one is hearing quite a different composer. Her clarity requires no sonic sharpening or over-deliberate emphasis. Everything flows: the polyphonic interplay of voices under the fingers seems to happen by itself, as if one needs just one truly attentive listening for the music to make perfect sense.
The dynamics are above all between mezzo-piano and mezzo-forte, and hardly go above a mild forte. The tempi are also generally measured, but allow for virtuosity where appropriate. But because of the performer’s great sensitivity, this never sounds pale or half-hearted, but rather as if it just had to be played that way. The interrelation between the voices is well structured through this approach, with moments of tension to be savoured, and carefully thought-out use of the colours of the keyboard.
Jill Crossland has nailed her colours to the mast for this view of Bach. In her interpretation the composer sounds above all a set of heavenly meditations, some of the Preludes and Fugues contrapuntal mandalas, one somehow imagines the pianist with eyes closed and leaning her head slightly to the side, with great concentration and profundity.
This is how Crossland interprets - with awareness of each single sound and at once wonderfully relaxed and graceful, expressing so many phrases with great delicacy. One listens happily, but often moved to tears. Bach sounds so beautiful! (Another) hidden gem!
