Bach: The Six French Suites (2014)

Russian American pianist Sergey Schepkin tends to have a polarizing effect with his Bach recordings, which might be described as being like Glenn Gould without the sharp edge. In Schepkin's Bach, listeners will hear Bach, but they will also hear a lot of Schepkin; his readings have a consistent and distinctive surface that they'll be able to recognize after sampling just a small amount. He does not use a lot of pedal, but his recordings are intensely pianistic, with a clean, consistent articulation that does not let the ... Read More

Russian American pianist Sergey Schepkin tends to have a polarizing effect with his Bach recordings, which might be described as being like Glenn Gould without the sharp edge. In Schepkin's Bach, listeners will hear Bach, but they will also hear a lot of Schepkin; his readings have a consistent and distinctive surface that they'll be able to recognize after sampling just a small amount. He does not use a lot of pedal, but his recordings are intensely pianistic, with a clean, consistent articulation that does not let the music vary much from movement to movement and piece to piece. He tends to add a good deal of ornamentation, however, and for that reason this set of the six so-called (not by Bach) French Suites makes a good place to start with this unorthodox and, for many, compelling pianist: the case for ornamenting the repeats in these dances, which exist in multiple versions that seem to suggest that Bach himself was fooling with the ornamentation possibilities, is a strong one. With this recording... Read Less