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Here's a little clip of me playing J.S. Bach English Suite No.2 in the concert hall in Tuscaloosa AL recently.

Hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/0KuR1HWPIZE

Sounds fantastic, Joe! I enjoyed it much!

Rick

That is amazing playing.

Thank you.

Oh Joe -

It's really superb in virtually every way, every tempo perfectly judged, and your various touches are wonderful, especially the legato.
Bravo, bravo !

Merry Christmas (in advance).

Hope you'll be able to be home for the holidays.

Karl

P.S. Your very serene quiet is a lesson for young pianists.

Excellent, musical, relaxed playing !! Bravo !!

Coincidentally I had just finished playing through the Praeludium myself two minutes before I walked upstairs, turned on the computer and found this thread. What are the odds!! I've been working on the Praeludium for about three weeks - and have a long way to go before I'll be able to hopefully play it even half as well as you do here.

Thanks so much for sharing your performance with us Joseph.

That Bach Suite was beautifully played.I suddenly realised that the Prelude reminded me so much of one of the Brandenburg Concertos !
Thank you Joe that was so very inspiring. My husband listened as well . (his favourite composer is Bach.)

Elegant and refined playing.

Thank you!

Regards,

So beautifully played, Joe. I needed this today. Thank you for sharing

By the way, was this also live streamed? If so, I missed it.

Beautiful and like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

Beautifully executed, Jo. If the venue want I can lend them a black paint pen.

Well done. Playing an entire Bach Suite, especially an English Suite, and especially this one, is no small task.

i enjoyed your practice videos as well.

good job, thanx!

Magnificent!

Thanks so much for all your kind words everyone. Honestly it was a really tough journey to get the suite to that level (I'm actually still not satisfied with it but I'm kind of proud of that performance which is why I shared it). The piano was completely out of regulation, the repetitions were not working at all making mordents very difficult (which is why I altered some), but there is I think still a good instrument inside that piano somewhere. It just needs a lot of work. It's a 2002 NY D, potentially a killer D, but 18 years in the Alabama climate in an institution will do certain things to a piano.

As for the legato - thanks for pointing that out. I play this suite entirely without pedal, except for a touch of una corda here and there. I'm not a purist and I don't believe in leaving the pedal out for the sake of it, but in this suite, the inclusion of the pedal causes lumps in the tone that I don't think work. I do use pedal in certain places in Bach - the opening of the 4th and 6th Partitas for example, and touches of it in the Capriccio of the second partita to get through the counterpoint. It really depends on the piano. American Steinways have an explosive sound with the pedal on which in Chopin translates as a beautiful warm romantic sound, but in Bach doesn't. Yamahas can take a lot more pedal in Bach, because they don't have as much of a colour change when the dampers are lifted. Generalisations I know....

Hey Joseph,

This is no comment on your playing or choices. I do strongly disagree that the inclusion of damper pedal in the 2nd English Suite on even a Steinway doesn't work.
I think it is a choice to not use pedal and if one listens carefully to their pedaling and has good pedaling technique, one can use pedaling to great effect in this music without causing lumps or muddying it up. It is for sure a different approach than one would use in Chopin or Liszt, but nonetheless, I encourage all who are playing music of the Baroque period on a modern piano to feel free to experiment with the damper pedal for coloring the sound. If the Bach police come for you, it usually means you are doing something right!

Joseph - I'm curious. Where did you find the short improvisatory flourish that you added at the cadence prior to the return of the opening section? Was it an original creation?

I certainly can't comment on the affects of the Alabama climate on the piano's action, etc. but it is clear that whoever has been moving that beautiful instrument around the performance hall stage for the past 18 years hasn't been very careful about not banging into things. The audience side of the case seems unusually beat up. Certainly a good candidate for a little cosmetic touchup.

That was mine, it was obvious to me that some kind of cadenza belonged there, and so I just did a short flourish that I hope didn't take away from the structure of the movement.

And that piano is a good candidate for a full rebuild..... at least a new action and pin block!

Thanks Joseph - I figured it might have been a Fleetwood original. It worked. I've heard other recordings of the Praeludium where artists have done this effectively as well.

I'm sure that poor Steinway has been through the Boer Wars.