Pollini Plays Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book I

Bach’s first book called The Well-Tempered Clavier was completed, after many years’ work, in 1722.  Its basic purposes were two:  to put a stamp of approval on a new tuning system for keyboard instruments, and to provide, as the composer wrote, “For the profit and use of young musicians desiring instruction, and equally for the particular delight of those who are already skilled in this discipline.”

Robert Schumann recommended that keyboard players “…let the ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ be your daily bread.”  From almost any point of view, these keyboard pieces are an indispensable element of the keyboard canon.

When Bach wrote “clavier,” he referred to any keyboard available to be played, which included the harpsichord, the organ, the spinet, and the very earliest version of the fortepiano (which Bach reportedly disliked, but later found acceptable).

The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I is made up of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys.  (Book II, with another set of the same, was at first called “Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues.”  It was later named “The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II.)  And it was Book I that Italian master Maurizio Pollini chose for his very first recording of any music by Bach.  This 2-CD set shows a keyboard legend at the height of his performing and interpretive powers.