Six Sharps, Six Pages, All Thumbs

My thoughts regarding Easy-Key Hard-Fugue went out the window again today, along with my confidence in reading Bach.  Six sharps — and written in minor, to boot; more 32nd notes and double sharps that I can keep up with; seemingly pages and pages of notes; and the fugue in four voices.  Worse, it was a busy day, so no time to re-play anything and try to make it palatable.  This is the first time during this summer’s WTC Project that I have followed up by listening to a great pianist play the P&F — to see what the heck it’s supposed to sound like.  Of course I turned to my friend Stephen Prutsman’s recording of the WTCII (again I regret that it is not available on Amazon), and voila! — oh so THAT’S how it’s supposed to sound.  If this were 18th century Germany, and I was reading alone in my parlor, I would not be able to tap the skill of a great pianist on my stereo or even phone.  But then, I wouldn’t be blogging about my experience, either, so maybe I would have the time to play it several times.  Hmm.  The luddite piano teacher needs to meditate on this.