Re: GG: William Kapell

[DorianLS@aol.com]

Re/ your comments on William Kapell:

I heard some selections from this 9 volume set on the radio some time ago.  I 
didn't hear the Bach, but I did hear a Scarlotti sonata (K380) and it was 
extraordinary.  I wish I could get just this one piece at least, but the 
purchase of the 9 volume set is a bit too high a price to pay.  I wonder if 
they will release individual CD's eventually?  I'd buy one CD for this piece 
alone.   Dorian

<< I recently acquired the William Kapell set in the Great Painists of
 Twentieth Century series. I had never heard him before; the playing is
 spectacular. Of particular interest to F miners is the performance of the
 4th Bach Partita, which is absolutely extraordinary. It includes all
 sections other than the Gigue [the recording was incomplete  at the time of
 Kapell's death]. His playing has clarity of  polyphonic articulation similar
 to GG's. It is also rhythmically supple, and brings out the dance qualities
 in these pieces that caused me to notice  melodic lines and "characterful"
 phrases that I did not hear in GG's perf. There is also an intensity of
 emotion that matches the intensity of the execution. Have any of you heard
 Kapell's perf, and if so, what do you think? >>