Masato Suzuki
(BIS, two SACDs)
While some generous expressive effects are occasionally overdone, the fugues are projected with verve and crispness, and show Suzuki at his best
This month BIS is releasing two discs of JS Bach’s keyboard works, both of them from members of the Suzuki family. One is a harpsichord version of The Art of Fugue, played by Masaaki Suzuki, founder of the Bach Collegium Japan and doyen of present-day Bach interpreters, while the other is this survey of the first volume of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues, The Well-tempered Clavier, performed by Masaaki’s son, Masato.
It’s played on a modern harpsichord, a copy of a two-manual, 17th-century Flemish instrument with a robust and muscular sound. Much of Suzuki’s playing is robust and muscular too; tempi are generally on the fast side, while still allowing for generous expressive effects that just occasionally are a bit overdone, as in, it seems to me, the C sharp minor Prelude. But some of the other preludes can seem cluttered and rushed – the C minor, for instance. Generally it’s the fugues that are the more impressive: both the G major and A major are projected with wonderful verve and crispness, and really show Suzuki at his best.
