Recording 'The Well-tempered Clavier' is a bit like climbing Everest, and this new recording by Christophe Rousset devoted to Book I has been eagerly awaited. With modesty and rigour, he gives a rich, varied interpretation of this monument to Art, revealing its secrets to us in a highly informative introductory text. Performed on the magnificent Rückers harpsichord at the Château of Versailles, Nicolas Bartholomée's recording ideally reproduces the full, fruity savour of this instrument that has miraculously been preserved.
[Rousset’s] is a grounded, incontestably considered reading, exuding a quiet, unflappable authority reminiscent of Gustav Leonhardt…he untangles Bach’s protean polyphony with the informed illumination of a seasoned tour guide steeped in his subject…particularly compelling are the massive fugues in A minor and B minor, magisterial, and plotted with long-limbed structural sophistication
Bach, J S: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 Groups & Artists Rousset, Christophe
[Rousset places] a reliance on good fingers, very occasional well-chosen ornaments and canny but subtle agogic shaping governed by an underlying sense of steady but continuous flow…[it] makes a sound guide to these wonderful and varied works.
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