I found that recording deadly dull. She plays every variation in the same soporific mood. No sense of discovery. Just a reduction of Bach’s most wide-ranging keyboard work to background music.
I feel like I've rediscovered the piece. Almost like hearing it for the first time.
Well, I guess it demonstrates some of the points brought forth in the Hutto article above.
I believe that there is such a thing as objective music criticism and some writers, Harold Schonberg was one, may approach it. I do know from my own experience that sometimes nothing sounds good to me.
That's when Bach or Beethoven comes on the radio and I mutter to myself, "My Lord, this guy was such a hack..."