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Quartz Music

Bach: Keyboard Works / Jacob Katsnelson

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Details

Composer
BACH, J.S.
Artist
Jacob Katsnelson
Format
CD
Label
Quartz Music
Released
Jan 01, 2011
Catalog #
QTZ2084
UPC
880040208426

About



BACH Suite in a, BWV 818a. Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother, BWV 992. 3-Part Sinfonias, BWV 787–801. Prelude and Fugue in b, BWV 544 (arr. Liszt) • Jacob Katsnelson (pn) • QUARTZ 2084 (59:40)


At first I couldn’t place him, but I knew that somewhere I’d met Jacob Katsnelson before. Then it hit me. He was the pianist who accompanied Maxim Rysanov in a couple of numbers on a two-disc Onyx set of Brahms’s chamber works in viola transcriptions, reviewed in Fanfare 32: 5. Frankly, my focus was so centered on Rysanov that I didn’t pay much attention to Katsnelson at the time.


He was born in Moscow in 1976, entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1993, and since 2001 has taught at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He has soloed throughout Russia, as well as in Austria, Germany, Spain, and France, done the competition thing, won prizes, participated in festivals, and yada yada. By now it’s an old and familiar story: Gifted youngster enters conservatory, wows competition judges and talent scout, lands recording contract, and makes it big on the international concert scene.


Sometimes, the big splash dissipates in receding ripples on the pond; other times, not. I can’t say what will happen with Katsnelson in the long term; I can only register my reaction to his playing in the here and now, and that reaction is overwhelmingly positive. This is one of the most satisfying Bach recitals on piano to come my way in a long time.


To begin with, as I’ve made clear in the past, when I listen to Bach on piano, I don’t want the artist to apologize for the instrument by playing it as if it were a harpsichord. There’s no hint of that with Katsnelson. He uses the full range of the piano’s dynamic, sustaining, and expressive potential. And his instrument, amusingly credited in the booklet as “a regular piano”—I presume to distinguish it from a fortepiano—is a concert grand, model E-272, from Bayreuth maker Steingraeber & Son, a magnificent specimen if I may say so.


Further research on the company’s website reveals a number of interesting details and specifications about this new instrument: “Unique features include the unusual shape of the sound-reflecting rims, the combined star-shaped and half-timbered braces, and the ‘incredibly agreeable’ (Cyprien Katsaris) touch. The most uncommon feature, however, is the shape of the soundboard in the treble. The resonating space was newly reconstructed, based on the classical relationship between [short] string length and resonating space. Steingraeber strings have 27 percent less wood mass to penetrate than comparable instruments by other piano builders! The result is a tone that is present and singing, even in softer passages.”


The part about softer passages is true. Katsnelson’s pianissimos diminuendo to a whisper. But there’s no compromise in fullness of tone, resonance, or raw power. The recording, made in 2009 at the Steingraeber studio, could serve as a standard against which recorded reproduction of piano sound is measured. Intimate, as in a private music room, yet acoustically alive and vibrant, every subtlety of the instrument’s complex palette is captured and projected with amazing lifelike presence. It stands to reason, of course, that a piano manufacturing firm would design and engineer a perfect acoustic space in which to conduct painstaking measurements and tests of its products. This is the high-tech world of attaching scopes and computers to the sounding board and of analyzing streams of ones and zeros. In this case, it worked wonders.


All would be for naught, of course, if Katsnelson didn’t know his way around Bach, but he does. There are some performance idiosyncrasies, like the tendency to roll chords at cadences, that purists may find objectionable, but in general Katsnelson’s approach is not of the romantic persuasion. He avoids grand ritards and other sins of exaggerated point-making. He does, however, as noted, make full use of the piano’s dynamic range and sustaining power, which means that he crescendos and decrescendos and applies pedals where it makes musical sense to do so. The result is a transparency of voicing that allows every strand of Bach’s counterpoint to be heard with pellucid precision.


For lack of a better term, I’d describe Katsnelson’s tempos as temperate. Fast movements are set within sane ranges of the metronome’s upper regions, an indication that Katnelson is not interested in promoting himself as a virtuosic marvel at the expense of Bach. And slow movements are not pondered and pestered to the point of prostration, an indication that Katnelson does not approach Bach with an attitude of affected reverence that can come across as so much pious posturing. No, Katsnelson’s Bach is refreshingly straightforward and superbly executed. This gets a very strong recommendation.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Tracklist 29 tracks

  1. 1 I. Prelude 01:42
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Prelude
    Duration
    01:42
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  2. 2 II. Allemande 04:10
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Allemande
    Duration
    04:10
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  3. 3 III. Courante 01:22
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Courante
    Duration
    01:22
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  4. 4 IV. Sarabande 03:42
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Sarabande
    Duration
    03:42
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  5. 5 V. Menuet 01:00
    Track
    5
    Title
    V. Menuet
    Duration
    01:00
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  6. 6 VI. Gigue 02:04
    Track
    6
    Title
    VI. Gigue
    Duration
    02:04
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  7. 7 I. Arioso: Adagio 01:34
    Track
    7
    Title
    I. Arioso: Adagio
    Duration
    01:34
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  8. 8 II. — 01:08
    Track
    8
    Title
    II. —
    Duration
    01:08
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  9. 9 III. Adagiosissimo 02:49
    Track
    9
    Title
    III. Adagiosissimo
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  10. 10 IV. — 00:28
    Track
    10
    Title
    IV. —
    Duration
    00:28
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  11. 11 V. Aria di Postiglione: Allegro poco 01:17
    Track
    11
    Title
    V. Aria di Postiglione: Allegro poco
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  12. 12 VI. Fugue all'imitatione di Posta 02:08
    Track
    12
    Title
    VI. Fugue all'imitatione di Posta
    Duration
    02:08
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  13. 13 Sinfonia No. 1 in C Major, BWV 787 00:48
    Track
    13
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 1 in C Major, BWV 787
    Duration
    00:48
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  14. 14 Sinfonia No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 788 02:03
    Track
    14
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 788
    Duration
    02:03
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  15. 15 Sinfonia No. 14 in B-Flat Major, BWV 800 00:58
    Track
    15
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 14 in B-Flat Major, BWV 800
    Duration
    00:58
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  16. 16 Sinfonia No. 11 in G Minor, BWV 797 01:46
    Track
    16
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 11 in G Minor, BWV 797
    Duration
    01:46
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  17. 17 Sinfonia No. 10 in G Major, BWV 796 00:57
    Track
    17
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 10 in G Major, BWV 796
    Duration
    00:57
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  18. 18 Sinfonia No. 15 in B Minor, BWV 801 01:04
    Track
    18
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 15 in B Minor, BWV 801
    Duration
    01:04
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  19. 19 Sinfonia No. 7 in E Minor, BWV 793 01:38
    Track
    19
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 7 in E Minor, BWV 793
    Duration
    01:38
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  20. 20 Sinfonia No. 6 in E Major, BWV 792 01:06
    Track
    20
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 6 in E Major, BWV 792
    Duration
    01:06
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  21. 21 Sinfonia No. 12 in A Major, BWV 798 01:10
    Track
    21
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 12 in A Major, BWV 798
    Duration
    01:10
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  22. 22 Sinfonia No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 799 02:06
    Track
    22
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 799
    Duration
    02:06
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  23. 23 Sinfonia No. 3 in D Major, BWV 789 00:58
    Track
    23
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 3 in D Major, BWV 789
    Duration
    00:58
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  24. 24 Sinfonia No. 4 in D Minor, BWV 790 02:43
    Track
    24
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 4 in D Minor, BWV 790
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  25. 25 Sinfonia No. 8 in F Major, BWV 794 00:54
    Track
    25
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 8 in F Major, BWV 794
    Duration
    00:54
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  26. 26 Sinfonia No. 9 in F Minor, BWV 795 04:13
    Track
    26
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 9 in F Minor, BWV 795
    Duration
    04:13
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  27. 27 Sinfonia No. 5 in E-Flat Major, BWV 791 01:45
    Track
    27
    Title
    Sinfonia No. 5 in E-Flat Major, BWV 791
    Duration
    01:45
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  28. 28 Prelude 05:54
    Track
    28
    Title
    Prelude
    Duration
    05:54
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson
  29. 29 Fugue 06:13
    Track
    29
    Title
    Fugue
    Duration
    06:13
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Jacob Katsnelson