How do you play it?



I heared a recording of it by Angela Hewitt, and it's slow and nice, but I'm quite used to playing it fastish.

Dotted crochet = 56-60 seems like a reasonable tempo.

Me? Out of control mostly.

Here are some playing times of various recordings:

M. Tan (piano) 2:40
S. Richter (piano) 2:21
D. Sanger (organ) 3:17

How long is the Hewitt performance you hear-ed?

This site cites an average duration of 2:50 but refers in the text to the piece "lasting just under 3 1/2 minutes":

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=42:10392~T1

I would say the most important thing is that you can still almost hear the rhythmic character of 12/8, that the piece breathes and isn't just a sewing machine of notes, that each voice and motif is properly and consistently articulated and that the horizontal lines really come out independently and singing. If you can do all that at fast tempo -- why not?