In his captivating film The Creative Performer (1960), sponsored by the Ford Motor Company and now available on YouTube, Leonard Bernstein discusses the problem of interpretation in Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto no.1 in D minor, bwv1052, performed in concert by the New York Philharmonic with Glenn Gould at the piano. Bernstein helpfully gives illustrations of extremes of performance style: the opening orchestral ritornello and then a passage from a cadenza-like section for the keyboard are both performed in two highly contrasted manners, the expectation being that the actual performance will lie somewhere between the two extremes. The most memorable excerpt is perhaps when he plays the notes on the piano exactly as written in strict tempo and with unchanging dynamics, describing it as ‘unutterably dull’. This is not a phrase I would wish to use in relation to any of the performances in this crop of recent recordings of Bach’s keyboard concertos, but Bernstein’s educational film helps remind us of the wide variety and range of possibilities in interpretation that performers face when playing Bach, whether with a modern orchestra and grand piano or a small Baroque ensemble and harpsichord.

中文翻译：

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巴赫的羽管键琴和钢琴键盘协奏曲

伦纳德·伯恩斯坦（Leonard Bernstein）在由福特汽车公司赞助、现已在 YouTube 上提供的引人入胜的电影《创意表演者》（ The Creative Performer ，1960）中讨论了巴赫 D 小调第一大键琴协奏曲bwv中的解释问题1052，由纽约爱乐乐团与格伦古尔德在钢琴上演奏。伯恩斯坦对演奏风格的极端进行了有益的说明：开场的管弦乐 ritornello 和随后的一段类似华彩乐段的键盘乐段都以两种高度对比的方式演奏，期望实际演奏将介于这两个极端之间. 最令人难忘的片段也许是他在钢琴上弹奏的音符完全按照严格的节奏和不变的力度弹奏，形容它“无比沉闷”。这不是我希望在最近的巴赫键盘协奏曲录音中的任何表演中使用的短语，