Those Bachs

I received the cd set I ordered a few days ago, Christine Schornsheim playing J.S.Bach's Well Tempered Clavier or "Das Wohltemperirte Clavier" as it says on the cover. Sound is awesome playing on my system, though I was surprised that the sound engineers boosted up the volume unnecessarily. The harpsichord is a soft instrument. There is no need to make the volume higher than normal; that's what amplifiers are for, if someone wants to play it louder than it actually would be live. This recording's inflated volume is probably part of the "loudness wars" that some audiophiles complain of. It does harm the music, in my opinion. It tends to compress the dynamic range of music. There is a site that rates popular cd's for dynamic range. 

Here is a good discussion about how new technology could anticipate the end of the loudness wars. 

Here is a very good description with images showing the damage that loudness wars do to music.

That the music on the Schornsheim Bach was made louder is kind of silly. The harpsichord is basically a one-loudness instrument. There's no loud or soft, the strings are plucked. It's why the piano was invented, to permit the musician to change the dynamic range of each key hit and allow more expression in music. I suppose the sound engineer made this cd louder just to "compete" with other loud music. Kind of dumb, especially for the expected audience of this music. 

I think it's likely that the music was not damaged by having the recording be so loud. It could be that the engineers placed the mic's inside the harpsichord. I don't notice any room reverberation. But because it is louder than it should be you must turn down the volume to have it sound realistic.

In any event Christine Schornsheim plays wonderfully and the cd is very very good. The instrument she is playing on was built in Antwerp in 1624, 61 years before Bach was born. It has a pure sound. I hope to play the cd's many times until I know everything well. I am already quite familiar with book 1, less so with book 2. Just wish I didn't have to turn down the volume so much.

I listened to almost the whole of Book 1 before I tired of the harpsichord sound. Since I was playing Bach I decided to give his son, CPE Bach, another try. Yesterday I gave up on CPE's Fantasia in F#-, H.300, Wq.67 played by Danae Dorken so I gave it another go today. It was a relief after the harpsichord sound and after the strictly baroque sound of the father. And it is amazing how good the streaming music sounds through my system with it's new DirectStream DAC. This album may be one that I want to buy. But is it necessary? The sound streamed through the DAC is already terrific.

It's hard to believe that this Fantasia was written by Bach's son. It's so different from his music. You can hear something of the baroque, but with romanticism added. I understand that Mozart and Beethoven and others were influenced by him.

I also listened to the last cut on the same album, Schubert's Fantasy in C, D.760, Op.15 ("Wanderer"). Enjoyed that too.