“My journey with The Well-Tempered Clavier has been life-long,” Trevor Pinnock recalls. “I first encountered it at about 12 years old … A few years later, I heard all the preludes and fugues played on the piano on the radio, and I was hooked. In my 20s I myself recorded some preludes and fugues for radio broadcast, and I knew then that one day I would play them all. The mountain seemed insurmountable, however … How could I possibly delve into the density of some of those fugues, let alone understand them?”

“The range of this book is very wide, comprising informal music which can delight a child or casual listener, and formal music in which Bach could explore the far reaches of his mind and inspiration in composition. This is his richness: informal and formal, traditional and innovative, reaching out to touch both earth and heaven.”

For this recording, Trevor chose a trusted companion, a copy of a harpsichord by the Franco-German builder Henri Hemsch. The intrument “has a unique voice which combines a singing quality with enough clarity to allow Bach’s part-writing to shine.”

Alongside the release, audiences can discover Trevor’s series of videos My Baroque to celebrate the riches of his extensive recorded legacy.

“The Well-Tempered Clavier has been a source of learning and delight for generation after generation of musicians … Bach might have been surprised at how eventually it would become the foundation of Western music to our present day,” notes Trevor. “Now it will be a central part of me for the rest of my life.”

Limelight writes, “playing a sonorous, silvery Henri Hemsch copy tuned using an unequal temperament ‘which sounds well in all keys but retains some variation of key colour,’ Pinnock leads us through Bach’s exploration of all 24 major and minor keys with unerring style, impeccable technique and a youthful sense of wonder.”