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Was Sviatoslav Richter using the pedal in his recordings for Well-Tempered Clavier ?

I'm not able to listen if he is using it or not. (Since I like his way of playing, I would like to do the same : use the sustain pedal if he does, and not use it if he does not.)

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    I guess, this would be more appropriate for Music Fans section.
    – guidot
    Mar 17 '20 at 19:23
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It's obvious (to me) that the first C major prelude is absolutely drowned in pedal, and there is plenty at the start of the fugue as well.

Totally unauthentic, but whatever turns you on!

But if you cant "hear" what effects he is producing with the pedal, simply "using it because he does" might not achieve what you want!

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    I like the prelude arpeggios with pedal - and I bet Bach would have marked it if he had one. ;)
    – Albrecht Hügli
    Mar 18 '20 at 10:00
  • It can't be "authentic" anyway if it's being played on the piano, so the pursuit of authenticity doesn't strike me as a goal for people playing Bach on the piano — even Glenn Gould. As for what the OP wants, he has much to learn about that, and he could do a lot worse than emulating Richter as well as he might.
    – BobRodes
    Mar 27 '20 at 0:19
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If you want to compare one which has very little pedal, have a listen to some of Glenn Gould's recordings. For example this one:

The same fugue starts at 15:10 on the Richter recording you've provided. You will see that the difference in pedal usage is pronounced.

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  • thank you. I'm surprised though : Glen Gould uses pedal while I thought that he was never using pedal, and that he was playing staccato, which is not what we hear. He plays legato here.
    – Mathieu Krisztian
    Mar 27 '20 at 9:39
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    @MathieuKrisztian I think what can be said of Gould is that he uses less pedal than many pianists (Richter, for example), but certainly not no pedal at all. He is also known for playing passages staccato that nobody else would (here's a famous example, which you can also compare to Richter's version), but that doesn't mean that he never plays legato, either.
    – BobRodes
    Mar 28 '20 at 1:59
  • For a couple of eye-openers on the kind of pianist that Gould was, have a listen to this and this.
    – BobRodes
    Mar 29 '20 at 18:12

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