If Weissenberg is fond of Bach, as I'm sure he is in his own way why, I ask myself, is he so anxious to dispose of his music so quickly? As the disc runs for 65 minutes he couldn't have been pressed for time. Whatever the reason, the results are most unfortunate. A few of his tempos bear detectable resemblance to those which others (amongst whom I count myself) feel to be appropriate, but far too many reduce the music to glib gabble—Pinnock in all his ebullient glory, pushing some movements as hard as they will reasonably go, still makes music; it would be tiresome and pointless to enumerate them, but how, for instance, is it possible to approach the Allemande of Partita No. 4 so fitly but that of Partita No. 6 as an almost trivial pianistic exercise! Only Weissenberg knows the answer. He studied, it is said, with Landowska and in his torrential delivery of bars 15–16 of the Toccata of Partita No. 6 and their counterparts one hears the familiar echoes of an emotional approach that, since Landowska was a genius and Weissenberg is not, elsewhere gets quite out of hand. The surging dynamics, applied in an anachronistically pianistic way, and the fluctuating pulse, represent emotive responses that are, no matter how sincerely Weissenberg may feel them, extra-terrestrial to Bach's musical planet.
The Italian Concerto brings out the worst in him: it is possible that someone, somewhere, has galloped through the outer movements faster, but I have not heard them—nor do I wish to do so; his fingers are quick, clean and accurate, but that is the only good news I can offer. The cantilena of the Andante enters like an impatient postman's knock on the door, and unfolds in a manner worthy of an impassioned operatic aria. In contrast, Brendel (on Philips) invests the flanking movements with verve and, keeping his heart well away from his sleeve, shapes the Andante beautifully; if you want his work from a pianist (and why not?) then his is the recording to go for. Weissenberg has been well recorded, but apart from this—and the booklet notes, in three languages and by three different writers—there is precious little to recommend this disc to Bach lovers.'