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Reviewer: Jed Distler Alexandra Papastefanou first came to my attention via a mesmerising performance of Dimitri Mitropoulos’s rarely heard Piano Sonata but her credentials as a Bach scholar and interpreter stretch back for decades, including a long-unavailable 1991 recording of Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier for the Greek label Musica Viva. She has now recorded all 48 Preludes and Fugues anew, revealing herself to be a seasoned and stylistically engaging Bach pianist. Salient aspects of harpsichord technique inform Papastefanou’s approach, such as varied legato articulations and arpeggiations, strong finger independence, plus the occasional use of agogic caesuras and tenutos to demarcate phrase groupings and points of harmonic tension. Sometimes these expressive gestures momentarily pull focus away from the music’s natural rhythmic flow, as the Book 1 C sharp minor Fugue and B flat minor Prelude bear out. At other times, however, they insightfully illuminate, such as in four-voice fugues where the lines interact at close range like the Book 1 A minor and Book 2 G minor. Papastefanou avoids Gouldian extremes of pacing, yet certain tempo choices surprise. Her lyrically ruminative Book 2 C minor Prelude, for instance, differs from the lilting détaché of the Hewitt and Schiff remakes, while, by contrast, her Book 2 F major Fugue is unusually brisk and bouncy. The Book 1 D sharp minor and Book 2 G sharp minor Fugues also take uncommon wing as Papastefanou liberates them from their dirge-like pedestals. The aforementioned independence of Papastefanou’s fingerwork explains her ability to cogently balance contrapuntal lines in relation to one another, as well as to follow them through to their final destination. A good example of this can be found in the Book 2 C sharp minor Fugue, where her sprightly pulse still allows each entrance of the elaborate subject to take eloquent shape. She also brings out the Book 1 A major Fugue’s cross-rhythmic implications while not overdoing the détaché articulation. Note, too, how her gramophone.co.uk two-note phrase groupings in the Book 2 B flat Fugue subject are so supple that they sound bowed rather than hammered. Other textural felicities include Papastefanou’s downplaying the Book 1 G minor Prelude’s trills to a haunting murmur. Her beautifully regulated Steinway concert grand doesn’t hurt, and neither does First Hand’s luminous recorded sound. Space-challeneged collectors will further appreciate the label’s ‘DigiSleeve’ packaging. Beyond question, Papastefanou more than holds her own alongside the catalogue’s top piano versions of the ‘48’. |
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