Americans take on Bach

I remember a TV chef saying that cooking chicken is like a painter approaching a blank canvas, "you can make chicken taste like anything". I find that the keyboard music of Bach is like that, a performer can bring anything to this music. Think about the performances that are church-like in there solemnity. Then there is fast players like Argerich and Martins. There are all the colors of the rainbow in Wendy Carlos Bach on synthesizer or the polyphonic juggling of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.

On the Piano this Sunday afternoon, we sample some new recordings by American pianists playing the Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach. The program starts with a quick listen to a number of distinctive Bach pianists and then we hear two new recordings featuring Richard Goode (right) and Murray Periaha (above left).

The Piano this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC and KTXI.

Randy Anderson, host