Countless transcriptions of Bach's music were made in the 19th and 20th centuries, and many of them bear the signature of both well-known and lesser-known composers. Among the former are Bruno G. Seidhofler's remarkable four-hand piano version of Die Kunst der Fuge (1937) and the magnificent transcription of Bernhard Friedrich Richter's Orgel-Büchlein (1902), which can be heard on this recording. Before the invention of the phonograph, transcriptions for piano duos made music of all kinds accessible to a wide audience outside the concert hall in the privacy of their own four walls. They also allowed for repeated listening "on demand", enabling a more detailed study of the intricacies of a work.

The artists' approach here - in an advanced kind of historically informed performance - takes inspiration from Bach's established performance practice and then filters it through two specific media: the chosen instrument of an early 20th century piano and the performance indications scrupulously laid down by Richter, ranging from tempo indications for each chorale and numerous (but not too intrusive) agogic markings to the octave doubling he often added in the soprano and/or bass.

In the words of Harnoncourt: "Every era has exactly the instrumentation that best suits its own music. In their imagination, composers hear the instruments of their own time [...]".

And the great baroque oboist Bruce Haynes wrote: "Instruments can be seen in terms of Darwinian adaptation. They are constantly changing in small ways to make it easier for musicians to perform the music of the moment. There is enormous pressure on instruments to be as well adapted as possible to the music of their time.

Instrument makers are very sensitive to the wishes of the players, and these wishes are the direct cause of mutations The 1912 Kaps piano played here, with its many technical innovations for its time, dates precisely from the time of Richter's interpretation of the organ booklet.

The piano has been preserved in perfect condition with original strings and hammers, and its restoration allowed for a meticulous reconstruction of every mechanism and resonator. Ernst Kaps received a number of patents for the inventions he applied to his instruments, including the double overstringing technique (1865) with three bridges (bass, tenor and treble), which gave even smaller instruments greater sound power.

Further information:
Recorded in September 2023 in Rome, Italy The artists play a piano by Ernst Kaps (Dresden, ca. 1915), which was restored by Dario Aufiero.
The booklet in English contains a note on historically informed performance by Andrea Cohen, a note on piano arrangements for 4 hands by Chiara Corona and a note on the piano by restorer Dario Aufiero.

This new recording presents a beautiful four-hands piano version (with significant interventions) of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbüchlein, transcribed by Bernhard Friedrich Richter (1850-1931), who was Bach's (1685-1759) successor as cantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Played on a late 19th century German piano built by Ernst Kaps, it perfectly captures the sound and character of 19th century 'Hausmusik', when the great masterpieces of the past were modified for domestic use and practice.

Performed by early music specialists Andrea Coen and Chiara Corona. Andrea Coen is an organist, harpsichordist and fortepianist who has studied with such renowned artists as Ton Koopman and Alan Curtis and collaborated with personalities such as Christopher Hogwood and Monica Huggett. His recordings of baroque and early classical piano music for Brilliant Classics have received rave reviews.

Coen recorded the 'Kleine Kammermusik' and made the first complete recording of Telemann's Fantasias. According to MusicWeb International: 'Coen, an experienced, sensitive instrumentalist with a profound knowledge of historical performance practice and a bag full of important recordings under his belt, was even able to turn Telemann into something special on a typewriter'